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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 



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SPIRITUAL LIFE 



BIBLE LECTURES 






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GEO. C. NEEDHAM 






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PHILADELPHIA 



AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 






1895 



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WASHINGTON 



Copyright 1895 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



EXPLANATORY. 




HE Addresses herein published were 
delivered at the Niagara and North- 
field Conferences for Bible Study. 
They have been re-delivered else- 
where and many of them appeared in a former 
volume, " Preach the Word." Repeated re- 
quests for the Lectures in more permanent 
form has led to their publication. The Studies 
were developed in the ordinary course of Scrip- 
ture examination, were taken during their 
delivery by a stenographer, and revised by the 
author. 

The chief object of these Bible Lectures is 
the deepening and quickening of Spiritual Life 
in the hearts of God's people. It is sincerely 
hoped that the Holy Spirit will graciously use 
them for the Promotion of Piety. 

The reader is specially forewarned that 
every Scripture reference should be studiously 

(5) 



6 Explanatory. 

examined. The insertion of texts in full would 
have occupied too much space ; the references 
ought to stimulate each person to examine the 
several passages which are given in chapter 
and verse in order to have a more complete 
understanding of the topic expounded. 

Special attention is called to the final chap- 
ters on The Psalms. They have involved 
much labor and will not be appreciated by a 
superficial reading. We beg for them con- 
scientious study. True piety can only be pro- 
moted by pains-taking Bible investigation 
while looking to the Holy Spirit for mental 
enlightenment and illumination of the divine 
Book. 

Now may the blessings which attended the 
Lectures when delivered be multiplied a hun- 
dred-fold, and be used of God in helping every 
reader to love, reverence, and study, the blessed 
Word of Life. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Explanatory, 5 

Geo. C. Needham, . . 9 

Bible Conferences : Their Origin, .... 17 

I. Manifold Ministry of the Spirit, . . 23 

II. The Spirit of Revelation and of 

Unction, 41 

III. The Spirit and the Word, 57 

IV. How to Study the Bible, 76 

V. The Manifold Gospel, 95 

VI. Consecrated Vessels, 114 * 

VII. Paul's Devotion to Jesus, 132 

VIII. Communion with Jesus, 149 

IX. Redemption as Taught by Moses, . . 170 

X. Our Great High Priest, 181 

XI. The Believer's Blessed Hope, ... 198 

XII. Spiritual Life in the Psalms, . . . . 213 

XIII. Spiritual Life in the Psalms, .... 235 

XIV. Spiritual Life in the Psalms, .... 248 



(7) 



GEORGE C. NEEDHAM.* 






HE subject of this brief notice was born under 
the British flag on the shore of the Ken- 
mare Bay, not far from the far-famed l^akes 
of Killarney in the south of Ireland. His 
parents were Irish Protestants, and he, with nine 
brothers and sisters, enjoyed a religious training. 
When five years old he received a decidedly religious 
impression from hearing an older sister recite a sermon 
which she had heard on the Second Coming of Christ. 
But it was not until his eighteenth year, when the great 
revival wave swept over Ireland, that he became fully 
assured of salvation. The mother of the Needham 
family, with her ten children surrounding her bedside, 
passed away when George was nine years of age. The 
mother's dying prayer was for the spiritual welfare of 
her children. It has been abundantly answered. 

When nineteen years old young Needham entered 
business in Dublin. He soon won the high regard of 
his employers by detecting a system of fraud which had 
for some time been practised against them. At the 
end, however, of his first year in business, against the 
protest of his employers who made him flattering offers, 
and of some of his friends, who thought him rash, he 

* For this sketch of Kvangelist George C Needham we are chiefly in- 
debted to The Christian Herald^ edited by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage. 

(9) 



io George C. Needham. 

relinquished his position and went forth as an Evan- 
gelist. His labors during the first few years of his 
ministry succeeded so well in Ireland that he was in- 
vited to England, where a successful work in the 
vicinity of Mr. Spurgeon's birthplace threw him into 
contact with that great preacher. It is said that he 
proposed at this time to enter Mr. Spurgeon's college, 
then in its incipiency, but that the latter, seeing the 
work he was doing, advised him to continue preaching 
Christ. In 1866, Mr. Needham, in company with Henry 
Grattan Guinness, made an evangelistic tour of Ireland 
with the most marked results. " Thousands flocked 
to their preaching, and strong men fell to the ground 
under powerful conviction of sin. Conversions were 
numerous. Christians were greatly stirred to work for 
the salvation of souls. 

When he entered upon his life-work it was with the 
reservation that, if not supported, he would return to 
his former home and aid his father, who for years had 
filled several public offices. George had heard nothing 
of the theory of living by faith, although he was now 
practically living that life. When his first trial came 
through lack of funds he determined to re-visit his 
father. That night he had a troubled sleep, and three 
times had a startling dream that his father and himself 
were net-fishing, and every time they threw the net the 
father fell overboard and became entangled in the 
meshes. The morning found him feverish, dejected, 
and on the border of despair. He sought relief in pro- 
tracted prayer and arose strengthened, when a telegram 
reached him. He surmised evil tidings, and, before 
opening it, again sought the help which cometh from 



George G Needham, n 

God only. A strange peace came over him, and he 
was somewhat ready for the terrible news : ' ' Your 
father was drowned yesterday. Come home immedi- 
ately." Soon after the settlement of family affairs, 
with the added burden of younger brothers and a deli- 
cate sister, for whom temporary arrangements had been 
made with relatives, the young Evangelist, strong in 
purpose to win souls, started out on a tour of preach- 
ing throughout Ireland and England. 

Observing one day the shabby condition of his cloth- 
ing, he ventured to pray especially for a new suit. He 
had not heard of any one before doing this. In a very 
brief space of time he received an anonymous letter, in 
which he was asked to call on certain shop-keepers. 
On doing so he found they had been commissioned 
to renew his wardrobe, even to hat and boots. The 
great packages came to his room, when, spreading 
them open, he challenged the devil to look at his 
Father's gifts, and never again to tempt him on the 
score that he would either starve or go ragged if he 
continued evangelizing. The Evangelist has had many 
such lessons taught him by great trials and extra- 
ordinary deliverances. 

In the year 1867 two young preachers in Great 
Britain had agreed together to visit America. These 
young men were George C. Needham and the late 
Henry Moorhouse. Mr. Needham having been de- 
tained by the sickness of a sister, who afterwards accom- 
panied him on the voyage, did not reach the United 
States until three months later than his friend Moor- 
house. He landed at Boston, and on the next day 
gave a brief address at the noon meeting of the Y. M. 



12 George C. Needham. 

C. A. Invitations to preach began immediately to 
pour in upon him. Mr. Spurgeon had introduced him 
by letter to the churches of America, hence the con- 
fidence readily bestowed on the young stranger. 

Moorhouse had already reached the public ear in 
Chicago through D. I,. Moody, then President of the 
Y. M. C. A. of that city. Through these young Evan- 
gelists, Bible readings, as they are now more popularly 
called, were first introduced, similarly in New England 
and the great West. Bagster's Bibles were then com- 
paratively unknown among the American people ; but 
the Bagster's, carried by the young preachers, well 
thumbed and well marked, were regarded as a curi- 
osity, and immediately the work of importation began. 
Pastors, missionaries, Sunday-school workers, and 
others, must study a Bagster's Bible! Some, indeed, 
made excellent use of them, while others, not diligent 
in the pursuit of Bible knowledge, found the talisma- 
nic copy very ordinary after all. Rev. S. H. Pratt, of 
Salem, Mass., had invited Needham to his church. 
He, too, was struck with the marked Bible used by 
the Evangelist, and at once ordered a copy. This was 
probably the first Bagster imported of that immense 
number which thereafter found purchasers on this side 
the sea. Mr. Pratt made excellent use of his Bible, 
having since then entered upon the work of evangelism, 
and has been for years well known as a faithful, accu- 
rate teacher of God's Word. 

After Moorhouse left Chicago, Mr. Moody urged 
Needham to visit him, he having previously met with 
him in London. These were halcyon days ; a nucleus 
of whole-souled young men had already stamped the 



George C. Needham. 13 

city with religious zeal. Bible study received an 
added impulse when Mr. and Mrs. Needham, on their 
wedding tour, joined that vigorous band. Moody, 
Whittle, Jacobs, Morton, Reynolds, and others, are 
still, thank God, with the church on earth, and ripen- 
ing for the Home in heaven. 

A recent critic has tersely remarked: "Mr. Need- 
ham emphasizes, elucidates, preaches the Word." The 
same testimony is given wherever he has gone, and 
there is no doubt that it reveals the secret of his suc- 
cess. God will bless His own Word. Preachers and 
Evangelists may depend upon that. If they desire 
God's blessing, let them make their hearers know and 
understand the Bible. If their object is popularity 
as eloquent or gifted preachers, then they may deliver 
an oration with a verse of Scripture used for form's 
sake as a peg to hang it on. They will have their 
reward. It is the Word of God which is ' ' quick and 
powerful" for the conversion of sinners. Mr. Need- 
ham believes this, and he has made it his study in 
order to expound it unto others. 

A recent article calls attention to his constant aim of 
exalting the Scriptures. It says : ' ' The best commen- 
tary on the New Testament is the Old Testament, and 
vice versa; the Scriptures explain themselves. The 
listener is profound^ impressed with the importance 
of studying the Word of God, and he goes home with 
at least a mental resolution to be a closer Bible student. 
One thing is very apparent — it is that people will go 
to hear the Bible explained when it is well done. ' ' 

Mr. and Mrs. Needham have both written largely on 
Bible themes. Mr. Needham has also prepared a 



14 George C. Needham. 

voluminous life of Mr. Spurgeon, and a large book on 
"Street Arabs," besides having written a life of his 
friend, Henry Moorhouse. The Evangelist has been 
the hardest sort of a worker all his life. He preaches 
nightly almost the whole year around. He gives 
Bible readings nearly every afternoon, sometimes con- 
ducts a morning prayer meeting, preaches frequently 
four or five times a Sunday, carries on a large and 
/aried correspondence, and contributes to a number of 
nagazines and papers. One of his little books, ' ' Father 
Waffle, ' ' has reached a circulation of four hundred and 
fifty thousand. 

Although on three separate occasions he has been 
offered an honorary degree, with most flattering allu- 
sions, Mr. Needham is still "Evangelist" pure and 
simple. Though in constant movement from one part 
of the country to another, having carefully kept him- 
self free from ties which would confine his labors to 
any one location, he is not a professional revivalist. 
The distinction may appear trivial, but it is very im- 
portant. Some idea of his character may be formed 
from an answer he once sent to a member of a com- 
mittee in a large city, who wrote to him for suggestions 
about the style of advertisement which should be 
issued, announcing his meetings. ' * By no means 
advertise me," he wrote, "as being sensational, or 
magnetic, or eloquent, or scholarly, or smart, or any 
such thing, but only as a plain man, telling a plain 
story, in a plain manner." 

The Evangelist has done pastoral work in Chicago 
for two years, where the great Chicago Avenue church 
and school felt the power of his organizing ability, as 



George C. Needham. 15 

well as of his earnest preaching. He generally avoids 
great denominational gatherings and popular assem- 
blies, and refuses to deliver addresses on any subject 
which does not immediately relate to the gospel of 
Christ. He has labored with leading evangelists both 
in Great Britain and the States, and has co-operated 
for many years with his beloved brethren, Moody and 
Sankey. 

His three younger brothers have been influenced by 
his example, though never urged by his appeal to 
give themselves to the work of the ministry. Thomas 
is a well-known and highly successful Evangelist, 
whose career for ten years, previous to his conversion, 
among the Patagonians and Uruguayans of South 
America is packed with startling incidents. Benjamin 
is pastor of the Coatesville Baptist Church, a tireless 
worker moving along on independent lines and success- 
ful beyond many. William, pastor of the Trinity Bap- 
tist Church, Camden, is also an artist of no mean 
merit, whose rapid crayon-sketching before an audi- 
ence is surprising, thrilling and morally elevating. 
The Evangelist's sisters are all devoted workers in 
their respective churches, while several of their chil- 
dren are highly imbued with the missionary spirit. 
The sainted mother's prayer has indeed been answered. 

One of Mr. Needham 's special gifts is that of organ- 
izing and promoting great Christian conventions. He 
successfully carried through the prophetic conference in 
Chicago, inaugurated and moderated the Philadelphia 
Conference on Bible Inspiration, and the glorious con- 
vention of Baltimore, on the Person and Work of the 
Holy Spirit. Besides, the Evangelist's voice is heard 



1 6 George C. Needham, 

all over the country at Bible Schools and Bible Insti- 
tutes. In fact, of late years he is giving much of his 
time to the promotion of Bible Study through all of 
these potential agencies. 

Mrs. Needham is also well-known as an accurate 
Bible student, a prolific writer and an accomplished 
speaker. Her voice has been heard throughout the 
country at the various Bible Conferences and in many 
prominent churches. Her little book on "Woman's 
Ministry ' ' has received the commendation of biblical 
scholars, and its conservative tone has done much to 
remove prejudice against the position assigned woman 
in the Scriptures. 



BIBLE CONFERENCES : THEIR ORIGIN. 



- 



" They that feared the I^ord spake often one to another." — Malachi iii. 
16, 17. 

" I^et us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works ; not 
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, 
but exhorting one another ; and so much the more as ye see the day 

DRAWING NIGH."— HEB. X. 24, 25. 

IBlfH Conferences for the promotion 

AND DEEPENING OF SPIRITUAL LIFE have 

proved channels of great usefulness. The 
Niagara and Northfield meetings have 
brought untold blessings to many thou- 
sands, resulting in spiritual quickening and in multi- 
plied efforts to preach the gospel to every creature. 
Those who are privileged to attend such gatherings are 
edified by the truths taught, and elevated in their 
purpose for consecrated service and holy living. 

The benefits derived and the blessings secured from 
the annual gatherings of earnest Christians who come 
together for Bible study and mutual exhortation cannot 
be overestimated. We know of no other class of in- 
formal meetings which have exercised so potent an 
influence on the evangelistic ministry of our day. 
Bible conventions have given tone to that clear and 
distinctive teaching which has enriched the testimony 
of a mighty host of pastors, missionaries, and evan- 
gelists who are not ashamed to be found fully identified 
with the gospel of Christ. From Atlantic to Pacific, 

(17) 



1 8 Bible Conferences: Their Origin. 

and from northern Canada to Southern Texas, are to 
be found thousands of Christian workers in every 
department of gospel husbandry who, more imme- 
diately or remotely, have been helped by this class of 
assembly. Yea, and on foreign soil there are godly 
men, and sainted women, sowing the pure seed of the 
Word from which springeth a golden harvest, whose 
testimony has been clarified through the influence of 
these agencies. 

Modern Bible conventions are of Irish origin. They 
are the outcome of the great revival which swept over 
Ireland in the years i860 and 1861. This deep move- 
ment of God's Spirit focalized itself in Dublin, where 
the idea of congregating assemblies of converts from 
all parts of the island found permanent shape in yearly 
" Believers' Meetings." The promoters of this prac- 
tical method to impart Bible knowledge on an extensive 
scale were men of various evangelical schools, of large 
hearts, and of quick spiritual discernment. They gave 
time and means unstintedly for the enlargement of 
Christian work. Tons of expository tracts and evan- 
gelistic booklets were printed and distributed through 
their efforts. The Word of the Lord was thereby 
glorified while teachers of the Word were greatly 
multiplied. Young men who had not attained their 
majority became skillful expositors. With unflagging 
zeal they delved into the rich mines of Scripture and 
hastened hither and thither to impart the discovered 
treasures to others. The Holy Spirit was reverently 
honored, and he in turn supplied gifts to the church 
for the further edification of converts who were, in 
thousands, added unto the Lord. The early history of 



Bible ■ Conferences : Their Origin. 19 

those ' ' Believers' Meetings ' ' is rich in manifold inci- 
dent. Its record of spiritual progress and spontaneous 
duplication resulting in the great Mildmay Conferences, 
and many other Bible Schools of the people, is worthy 
the pen of a D'Aubigne. 

When the present writer landed in the United States 
in 1868 with the thrill of these mighty gatherings in 
his soul, he sought after Bible conferences but found 
them not. He was then a very young man and shrank 
from assuming leadership in their introduction. But 
after constant inquiry he found others of like mind 
with whom he communicated on the subject. Happily 
he became acquainted with one of God's modern seers, 
the late and ever-to-be lamented James Inglis, of New 
York City, who hailed the suggestion of a * * Believers' 
Meeting" with glad approval. The doctrine of sinless 
perfection with its various concomitant theories was at 
the time receiving popular attention. Dr. Inglis, with 
prophetic eye, saw the coming wreckage and rallied 
the forces on the basis of the divinely inspired motto : 
' ( Holding fast the form of sound words. ' ' We had 
the pleasure of welcoming to that first American Bible 
conference brethren who had long awaited the oppor- 
tunity for this form of fellowship. Besides James Inglis 
we had with us his brother, the late Dr. David Inglis, 
the late Charles Campbell, Drs. George S. Bishop and 
Iy. C. Baker, Rev. George O. Barnes and Mr. Benjamin 
Douglass. The subjects presented were : The Verbal 
Inspiration of the Bible ; The Personality and Ministry 
of the Spirit ; The Atonement and Priesthood of 
Christ ; The Two Natures in the Believer, and The 
Personal Coming of Our IyOrd. 



20 Bible Conferences: Their Origin. 

Our second conference was held the next year (1869) 
in Philadelphia, when our numbers were reinforced by 
men of like spirit. Dr. James H. Brookes was then 
among our guests. Well do we remember how it fired 
our young Irish heart to look upon, and listen to, the 
black-haired, black-eyed, robust giant of the West, 
then in the prime of his manhood. Vividly do we 
now recall his magnificent exposition of the text, 
" Waiting for the Son from Heaven." 

The next year (1870) the conference was held in St. 
Louis with greatly increased numbers. Gait, Canada, 
was the chosen ground for 1871, chiefly because of a 
great revival which had swept over the country and in 
which we had a prominent part. Thereafter came an 
interruption to the movement. James Inglis and 
Charles Campbell, men of renown as expositors and 
teachers, were called home to be with the Lord. Others 
of us were engrossed with evangelistic work in distant 
States and in Europe, but the spirit of the move- 
ment lived. Once again it took shape in 1875 under 
the leadership of D. W. Whittle, the late P. P. Bliss, 
and James H. Brookes. The stream has never since 
dried. On the contrary it has widened, deepened, and 
branched out into the Niagara Convention and many 
others. At first pilgrim in its character, that humble 
conference set in motion near Chicago in 1875, visited 
Swampscott, Mass.; Watkins Glen, N. Y.; Geneva 
Lake, Wis.; Clifton Springs, N. Y., and the romantic 
Island of Mackinac. After a few years of pilgrimage 
it was organized and officered, Dr. Brookes having 
been chosen president and Dr. W. J. Erdman, secretary. 
They have since continued in office, and much of the 



Bible Conferences: Their Origin. 21 

spiritual success of the Niagara Bible Meeting is due 
to the painstaking efforts of its faithful secretary. At 
Geneva I^ake our corps of teachers was reinforced by 
the presence of Dr. A. T. Pierson, that doughty cham- 
pion of Biblical orthodoxy, whose voice has since been 
heard in most of the conferences throughout this and 
other lands. 

It is not the province of this paper to sketch, even in 
brief, any or all of these schools of the prophets which 
in late years have come into successful operation. In 
June (1894) issue of the Echoes the Northfield Confer- 
ences received attention from the able pen of Dr. Pierson. 
We hope some gifted writer will in due course present 
the work of that characteristic assembly started at 
Ocean Grove, and now localized at Asbury Park, under 
the leadership of its energetic founder and director, Dr. 
I,. W. Munhall. Yet we may add to the names pre- 
viously mentioned the following who have been promi- 
nent in voicing out the Word of God at Niagara, 
Northfield, and Asbury Park : Prof. W. G. Moorehead, 
Dr. H. M. Parsons, Dr. Nathaniel West, Dr. Albert 
Erdman, Prof. J. W. Stifler, Rev. D. M. Stearns, the late 
Drs. A. J. Gordon and John Kendall, Rev. I. C. Sco- 
field, and Rev. Thomas Lowe. Loyally and convincingly 
have they honored the Scriptures in their totality and 
thereby strengthened the faith of thousands in their in- 
fallibility. 

I may briefly refer to the three great conferences 
which have become historic, originated and moderated 
by the writer : the Chicago Prophetic Conference ; the 
Philadelphia Conference en The Inspiration of the Bible, 
and the Baltimore Conference on The Manifold Ministry 



Bible Conferences : Their Origin. 



of the Holy Spirit. Doubtless occasional confer- 
ences on special features of biblical study will be 
organized in various cities under the leadership of able 
men, now in the field, who are profound believers in 
the whole Bible and who contend earnestly for the faith 
delivered once for all to the church of God. Several 
volumes of addresses delivered at the various confer- 
ences of the past have been published, and are worthy 
of a place in every Christian home. The present 
volume, * ' Spiritual Life, ' ' we prayerfully commend to 
our readers. 



Geo. C. Needham. 



East Northfield, Mass. 



SPIRITUAL LIFE. 



i. 

THE MANIFOLD MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 




BAR FRIENDS :— I think we begin right 
when we begin with the Spirit Himself. 
' ' Them that honor me, I will honor. ' ' 
We all believe theoretically in the Holy 
Spirit; we believe in His personality; we believe 
that He is the great source of power in the church ; 
yet practically we too much ignore Him, and He is 
thereby grieved. We cannot make the work of the 
Spirit and the ministry of the Spirit too prominent 
in teaching; nor can we make it too prominent in 
personal experience. 

I remember hearing of a Scotch pastor who, 
according to the custom, met with candidates for 
church-membership every Saturday to catechise 
them on the doctrines of the Bible, and as his 
manner was, he asked many questions. To one 
old woman he put this question, * ' How many 
persons are there in the God-head?" She replied, 
in her broad Scotch, "Twa." " Why, you foolish 

(23) 



24 Spiritual Life, 

woman, don't yon know how many persons there 
are in the Trinity ?' ' And she again said 4 i Twa. ' ' 
u Don't yon know that there are three persons, 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?" " Oh, I ken the 
Bible says that, and the Catechism says that; but 
you have been ten years in the parish, and I have 
never heard you say so much as that there was a 
Holy Ghost." He felt the rebuke and gave him- 
self up to the study of the subject. Then he 
began to preach on the Spirit, and the result was 
that a gracious revival broke out in that parish. 

Now, I believe, dear friends, that if in the 
church and in our individual lives we honor the 
Spirit more and have less reliance upon church 
machinery— which, while it may be all right in its 
place, yet if it takes the place of the Spirit we 
shall suffer — and if we put the Spirit in His own 
proper place, and recognize Him and honor Him, 
and trust in Him, He will respond to us, and He 
will manifest His power through us, and reveal the 
truth concerning Jesus Christ to us, and we shall 
thereby be enriched and enlarged in spiritual life. 

L,et me say here, that in these Conferences we 
cannot afford to amplify too much ; the subjects 
cannot be dealt with as interestingly as in an or- 
dinary evangelistic sermon. In our evangelistic 
addresses we can make use of anecdotes and illus- 
trations, making them a little more popular, per- 
haps; but in these Studies we take it for granted 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 25 

that you are already interested ; that your hearts 
are already in sympathy with the subject, and 
therefore we shall do little more than suggest as 
we proceed. I want you to bring your own Bibles, 
with your note -books, and write down the salient 
features of the subjects, with the Scripture refer- 
ences. And I wish to say that these Conferences 
will not be of very much benefit to you, unless at 
your homes you review the lesson and see how 
much you can get out of it that will be helpful to 
you in your personal life. I make this a point 
which I insist upon everywhere, that the real 
pi'oftt of the Conference is not during the session, 
but afterwards, when individual Christians are 
alone with God in studying the word, in studying 
out what they have heard, trying to put it in such 
a form that they can grasp it within their own 
hearts, and that it will be full of power in their 
own lives. We want not simply to hear with the 
outward ear, but to hear also with the inward 
heart. ' ' Thy word have I hid in my heart. ' ' 

I. We now commence with this fact, THAT the 
Spirit is personal. I know it is very hard to 
realize that the Spirit is personal, because He has 
not appeared in a human body. God tabernacled 
in the flesh, and we behold the Son of God in 
human form; we can touch Him; He appeals to 
our senses, so we know He is personal; but it is 
difficult to realize that the Holy Spirit is likewise 



2,6 Spiritual Life. 

personal. God is a Spirit. No man hath seen 
the Father, yet the Father is personal. If we 
keep in our minds this fact, that the Holy Spirit 
is personal as much as the Father is ; as much as 
Jesus is; that He has all the qualities, attributes, 
feelings and capabilities which go to make up 
personality, then we will not dishonor Him by 
thinking of Him as an emanation, an influence, 
or a thing. The Holy Spirit, as a personal Being, 
is incorporated in a body; but that body is the 
body of the believer, hence His manifestations in 
Christian life, just as we have manifestations and 
proof of the wind which we see not. 

John xiv: 16. "And I will pray the Father, 
and he shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may abide with you forever." The names which 
belong to Him prove His personality. He is 
called ' ' another Comforter. ' ' Now, that word 
"another" not only proves the equality of the 
Spirit with Jesus, but also the personality of the 
Spirit. Jesus was a Comforter to the disciples, an 
Advocate, a Helper, who said, ' ' When I go away I 
will send you ' another Comforter' — not a thing, 
not an influence, but a ' Comforter ;' one who 
shall be to you what I have been to you; He will 
be your Guide, your Friend, your Helper, and He 
will abide with you forever." He is called our 
Guide, our Counsellor, our Friend — names which 
distinguish Him as a personal Being. 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 27 

Again, there are certain attributes which he 
possesses. God has for his attributes Omniscience, 
Omnipotence, Eternity ; and the Spirit of God 
possesses the same attributes as the Father and the 
Son. See Hebrews ix. 14. Here He is called the 
Eternal Spirit. The Father is eternal, the Son is 
eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal; so that He 
has neither beginning nor end. 

Read 1 Cor. ii. 9-1 1. u But as it is written, 
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him. 
But God hath revealed them unto us by his 
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God. For what man knoweth 
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which 
is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no 
man, but the Spirit of God." The Spirit here is 
Omniscient. He knoweth all things. The Spirit 
of God is said to possess knowledge; He has all 
knowledge of to-day and to-morrow; He has all 
knowledge of the Father and the Son; He know- 
eth all things. You see that language could not 
be applied to an influence in any way, but it is 
applied to a person, and the Holy Spirit is that 
person. He possesses knowledge ; He knoweth 
u the deep things of God." 

Psalms cxxxix. 7-12. u Whither shall I go from 
thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy pres- 



28 Spiritual Life. 

ence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there. If I take the wings of the morning, and 
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even 
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand 
shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness 
shall cover me: even the night shall be light about 
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee: 
but the night shine th as the day: the darkness and 
the light are both alike to thee. ' ' This brings before 
us the blessed fact that the Spirit of God is Omni- 
present ; present everywhere, no matter how distant 
believers are from one another, no matter how far 
away they are from home and kindred, the Spirit 
of God is always with His people; He is in the 
heavens, He is in the deep, He is Omnipresent. 
I only give you these few sample texts along that 
line of study which could be amplified and devel- 
oped, making a subject of itself — the attributes of 
the Spirit of God. Remember these lessons are 
only suggestive and you are to work them out more 
fully for yourselves. 

Again, the action and work of the Spirit imply 
personality. Genesis i. i, 2. Here we find Him 
brooding over chaos at the beginning, bringing light 
out of darkness, order out of confusion. Job xxvi. 
13. We find that the Spirit is identified with the 
work of creation. He is the creator of this material 
earth, this cosmos, in co-operation with the Father 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 29 

and the Son. So we read the Spirit of God was 
engaged in the work of creation. ' ' By His Spirit 
He garnished the heavens. ' ' Psalms civ. 30. The 
Spirit's work in the material world is typical of 
His work in the spiritual world. 

John xvi. 8. ' ' And when he is come, he will 
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment. ' ' He will come to reprove, or con- 
vince, the world of sin, of righteousness and of 
judgment. Not only is He the creating Spirit, but 
also the convicting Spirit. Some time ago at the 
Northfield Conference, when Prof. Drummond was 
there, I arrived one day after Conference had com- 
menced. I found Mr. Moody, Dr. Pentecost and 
Prof. Drummond sitting on the ground, asking and 
answering questions. The question that was up 
when I reached the "Hill- top," was this: Whether 
the evangelists had been noticing in late years, the 
character of conviction produced in the hearts of 
the unsaved ; whether it was conviction of the guilt 
of sin, or of the power of sin. Prof. Drummond 
said in connection with his work, he thought the 
conviction produced in the minds of the young men 
was conviction of the dread power of sin, while Dr. 
Pentecost thought that in his preaching men were 
convicted of the guilt of sin. Mr. Moody turned 
to me and asked, ' ( What is your experience ? ' ' 
' 'Well, ' ' I said, * ' I am sorry to say that for the last ten 
years I have not found very many convicted either 



30 Spiritual Life. 

of the guilt or of the power of sin." We do not 
seem to have much conviction in these days. We 
get people into the Church in a very easy way, and 
I tell you friends that I hope the time may soon 
come when the Spirit will convict men of sin until 
they are all broken up. I may be right, I may be 
wrong, but I think one reason of this lack of con- 
viction is that we have not been honoring the Spirit 
of God sufficiently. 

By the way, let me say, in passing, that when 
we talk about the Book of Acts, we generally call 
it by its human title, ' ' The Acts of the Apostles, ' ' 
just as u The Revelation of St. John n is the human 
title of the last book in the Bible. That is not the 
true name of the Book ; see the first verse of chapter 
I. c ' The Revelation of Jesus Christ ;' ' so the 
"Acts of the Apostles," should be " The Acts of 
the Holy Spirit. " It is the fifth Gospel ; the Gospel 
of the Holy Spirit. The other Gospels record the 
life and ministry, the death and resurrection of 
Jesus, so that book records the work of the Spirit 
through the Apostles. And if you study this 
question in the book of Acts, Is the Spirit of God 
personal ? His actions, His power, His miracles, 
would so impress you, that you would bless God 
and praise Him that such a Divine person is given 
to the church. 

The qualities which the Spirit possesses prove 
His personality. Eph. iv. 30. "And grieve not the 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 31 

Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the 
day of redemption. ' ' The way in which we grieve 
Him is expressed in the context. We may grieve the 
Spirt of God in two ways. I may grieve the Spirit 
in my own heart by sin, and I may grieve the 
Spirit of God in your heart by my conduct towards 
you; and I think that is the thought really brought 
out in the text ; therefore we are to be kind one to 
another, gentle, forbearing one another, forgiving 
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath 
forgiven us. And by the exercise of these graces 
one toward another, the Spirit of God instead of 
being grieved, is gladdened; we have the power of 
gladdening the Spirit or grieving Him, so that 
although He does not take His flight from us, He 
may be grieved in our hearts. Yes, grieved, like 
some friend coming to our house; we entertain him 
in great style for a few days and then neglect him; 
he remains, but is grieved. The fact that the 
Spirit of God is capable of grief, is substantial 
proof of His personality. 

Acts vii. 51. "Ye stiffhecked and uncircum- 
cised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the 
Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." Now 
there is a difference between grieving the Spirit 
and resisting Him. The child of God grieves the 
Spirit, the unconverted resist the Spirit. How 
does a man resist the Spirit ? By simply refusing 
to believe on Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Stephen 



32 Spiritual Life. 

presented the crucified Saviour to the Jewish peo- 
ple and they would not believe on Him; now the 
fact of their rejection of Christ was proof of their 
resistance of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes persons 
may say, ' ' I am afraid I have resisted the Holy 
Spirit." Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? 
' ' Well no, I have not believed on Him. ' ' Then, 
of course, you have resisted the Spirit. In the 
persistent refusals of the sinner to accept Christ as 
his Saviour, he resists the Holy Spirit, for it is the 
work of the Spirit to bring the truth of the Gospel 
to the heart, and by our refusing to accept it, we 
put ourselves in opposition to the Spirit of God. 

Isaiah lxiii. 10. " But they rebelled, and vexed 
his Holy Spirit : therefore he was turned to be 
their enemy, a?zd he fought against them." Just 
think of that! u They rebelled and vexed the 
Holy Spirit, therefore He became their enemy and 
fought against them. ' ' Now, you cannot vex any- 
thing impersonal; you cannot vex the light, but 
you can vex a person. 

Acts v. 9. "Then Peter said unto her, How 
is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the 
Spirit of the L,ord ? behold, the feet of them which 
have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall 
carry thee out." What a terrible charge made 
against the man and the woman after having kept 
back part of the price of the land! While it was 
in their own power it belonged to themselves, but 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 33 

when they sold it and professed to have given all 
the proceeds to the apostles, yet kept back part of 
the price of the land, they lied to the Holy Ghost, 
so although they had not spoken a word, their 
action was a lie, and thus they vexed the Spirit, 
and judgment came upon Ananias and Sapphira 
for their sin against Him. 

II. The Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 

1. He is the regenerating Spirit. The Spirit of 
God is the Agent, the great, personal intelligent 
Agent in the church to do the work of regenera- 
tion. He is the regenerating Spirit and every 
believer is the product of the Holy Spirit, for he 
is born of the Spirit. 

John i. 12, 13. "But as many as received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believe on his name : Which 
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God. ' ' I want you to 
notice here, ' ' which were born not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God. ' ' Who are born of God ? u To as many 
as received Him, to them gave He power," or the 
right or privilege ' ' to become the sons of God. ' ' 

Romans viii. 15, 16. u For ye have not received 
the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have 
received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are the children of God." 

3 



34 Spiritual Life. 

L,et me say in passing, the neuter pronoun " itself " 
applied to the Spirit is in the Revised Version 
properly ' ' Himself. ' ' There is a verse in the second 
chapter of Acts where it is said that the tongue 
of flame came and " it y ' sat upon each of them, 
but the neuter pronoun there belongs to the symbol, 
the tongue of flame. It is always ' ' He ' ' and 
il Him " and " His;" " the Spirit Himself beareth 
witness with our spirit that we are the children of 
God. ' ' Therefore the cry of the believer, * c Abba, 
Father!" There is a traditional saying that the 
Jewish children in their first attempts to speak 
simply brought their lips together and made that 
sound, * ' abba, ' ' exactly as American children say 
' ' papa. ' ' Well, there are a great many of us who 
never get much beyond that u Ab-ba." It is a 
great thing to be able to look up and say, ' 'Although 
I have been a rebel against God yet now instead of 
being my Judge, he is my Abba, Father. ' ' The 
Spirit of Adoption in us leads us to cry, u Father," 
because we recognize the relationship which exists 
between us now ; he is my Father, I am His child. 
But let me add that though we have the Spirit 
of adoption now, the adoption has not yet taken 
place. There is a great deal of difference between 
adoption and birth. The ordinary idea is that as 
a rich man takes a poor child from the street into 
his family, giving him his name, treating him in 
every way as his child, so God in like manner 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 35 

takes the sinner into His family. Bnt the illustra- 
tion fails. There is no community of nature be- 
tween the reputed father and the adopted child; 
though the child may take that father's name, 
there is still a great chasm between them; there is 
no union of nature. Adoption is a very different 
thing from birth: we are not now adopted when 
we believe; we are born. We are made partakers 
of the Divine nature; there is a fellowship of nature 
between God the Father, and the believing sinner. 
But then, where does the adoption come in ? Turn 
to Romans viii. 23. " We . . . groan within our- 
selves, waiting for the adoption." We wait for the 
adoption ; now we have the Spirit of adoption 
already in us, because the Holy Spirit takes pos- 
session of the heart of the believer ; He is the 
Spirit of adoption witnessing within us to our 
spirits that we are the children of God. What is 
the adoption ? The redemption of the body. One 
of the interesting sites to me in Rome, is the old 
Forum. I spent many hours there, walking up 
and down, and I remembered a good many things 
in history which occurred there. When a young 
Roman was about to be invested with the rights 
of citizenship, the father brought him before the 
Senate, and said, ' ' This is my son who has 
reached the age of manhood, and I want him to be 
publicly recognized as a citizen of the Common- 
wealth." Then they take from him the robe of 



36 * Spiritual Life. 

boyhood and put on him what is called the ' ' toga 
virilis," or robe of manhood, and he is by that act 
adopted into the family of his father and he thereby 
becomes a citizen of Rome. So hereafter the 
believer's body is to be raised from the dead, and 
when that resurrection day comes, God will pub- 
licly invest us with the ' ' toga virilis ' ' our glorified 
body, and we shall enter into the rights of heavenly 
citizenship. We now wait for the adoption, even 
the redemption of our body. Oh, it is a grand 
thing to be a Christian; it is a divine and dignified 
business ; not simply, ' ' I belong to the Church and 
I am trying to do the best I can. ' ' But, ' ' I am a 
citizen of Heaven, I am a child of the King." 
Gal. iv. 4-6. See how Paul writes to the Gala- 
tians, as he wrote to the Romans, ' ' because ye are 
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son 
into your hearts crying, Abba, Father. ' ' 1 John 
iii. 1, 2. In the Revised Version it says, u Sons of 
God we are. ' ' Now I ask you, are you a child of 
God? I hear some reply, U I hope I am, I don't 
know whether I am worthy or not. ' ' On the score 
of unworthiness you need have no doubt. I know 
you are not worthy, neither am I. God looks down 
upon the unworthy, upon the beggar on the dung- 
hill ; he sees us in our filth, but in spite of our 
filth and folly He stoops to us and brings us into 
His family. 

2. The Holy Spirit is the Believers Seal. 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. $7 

We are born of the Spirit, and sealed with the 
Spirit. Eph. i. 13. "After that ye believed," 
or as the Revised Version reads, ' ' on believing ye 
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." 
Now, the seal is not some impression which the 
Spirit makes npon the heart. The seal is not 
some emotion which will pass away again, bnt the 
seal is the Spirit Himself. 2 Cor. i. 22. What is 
the use of the seal ? 

It is the mark of Recognition. Gal. vi. 17. 
' ' From henceforth let no man trouble me : for I 
bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 
The Apostle Paul had some brand-mark upon his 
body which was the seal of recognition that he was 
the property of another. The Lord had acquired 
Paul unto Himself. Paul calls himself the slave 
of Jesus, and says, ' ' I bear in my body the brand- 
marks of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Now, the Holy Spirit 
is the real brand-mark which God has put upon the 
believer as a token that now we are no longer our 
own; He has secured us unto Himself as purchased 
property and He puts upon us this brand-mark. 

2. Tim. ii. 19. "Nevertheless the foundation 
of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord 
knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one 
that nameth the name of Christ depart from in- 
iquity." This is the inscription of the seal upon 
the heart of the believer, " The Lord knoweth 
them that are his. ' ' Christianity is an exceedingly 



38 Spiritual Life, 

simple question, if we understand and remember 
that we belong to another. Consecration is simply 
a recognition of the fact of Christ's ownership of us. 
Oh, friends, if we once recognize the fact that we 
are the Lord's property; our brain, our talents, the 
wealth which we may accumulate, and all our gifts, 
or whatever we hold belong to Him; if that were 
recognized in the Church of God, we would fill 
the Lord's treasury full all the time and be able to 
carry on mission work, home and foreign, because 
all we have belongs to Him. There is not a single 
passage in the Bible which says that Jesus Christ 
died for the souls of men only; He came to save us 
soul, body, powers, faculties, everything that we 
possess. If we dissociate our earthly calling from 
spiritual life, there is no consecration. The Lord 
came to save soul, body, will, conscience, heart, 
life, talents, money, everything. I should recog- 
nize the fact that I am purchased by blood divine 
and sealed by the Spirit as the property of another. 
I have therefore no right to cheat Him; I have no 
right to say I own a thousand dollars, or fifty thou- 
sand dollars, or that I am a millionaire. I am only 
a steward; God entrusts me with certain funds, 
and I should manage that property for Him. This 
should be the result of the Spirit in us as the seal 
of God upon us. 

John vi: 27. " Labour not for the meat which 
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto 



Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 39 

everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give 
unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed. ' ' 

Jesus Christ was sealed by the Spirit. The seal 
was the mark of genuineness, validity. There 
were a great many who said, ' * I am the Messiah. ' ' 
But John said, U I knew Him not; but He that 
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto 
me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- 
ing, and remaining upon Him, the same is He. ' ' 
God placed His seal upon the Messiah, and testi- 
fied, u this is my beloved Son." All the others 
were false Messiahs. Now this is the proof of 
true Christianity. God places His seal upon every 
believer who is a regenerate person. ' • If any man 
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. ' ' 
That is a very solemn matter. The moment I 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God puts His 
mark on me. I should, therefore, recognize myself 
as purchased property. ■ ' Not every one that saith 
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom. ' ' 

Then the seal produces a likeness. Romans 
viii: 29. "For whom he did foreknow, he also 
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
his Son, that he might be the firstborn among 
many brethren." God's great plan is to have the 
redeemed race like Christ in His glorified Body. 
He started with Adam, making him after His own 
image. The devil came and despoiled that image, 
and man has been marred ever since. God then 



4-0 Spiritual Life. 

came down in grace and redemption, took man up 
out of the horrible pit, and hereafter will take him 
higher in a bodily resurrection. Then shall we 
be conformed to the image of His Son ; the image 
which God had before His mind in the beginning. 
But there is also a moral transformation going on 
in the lives of Christians who are sealed with the 
Spirit. 2 Cor. iii: 18. That is practical Chris- 
tianity. We are being changed, transformed by 
the Spirit into the image of Jesus. That means 
we are to be more patient to-day than yesterday, 
more gentle and more Christly day by day as the 
years roll on. We ought to control our temper; 
to mortify our covetousness ; to be more generous; 
we should ever be daily growing into the likeness 
of Jesus Christ, which the Spirit has come to pro- 
duce in us, so that the world may be convinced 
of the reality of Christianity, as that reality ex- 
presses itself in outward conformity to the blessed 
Son of God. 



Jed 




[Mm 



II. 

THE SPIRIT OF REVELATION AND OF UNCTION. 

HERE are many lines of study on the 
subject of the Holy Spirit which are 
very profitable. For instance, one can 
consider the Gospel of John and trace 
the operations of the Spirit and the promises con- 
cerning the Spirit through that Gospel. You will 
find there a wonderful field of study and of delight. 
Then any student can take up the book of Acts, 
and trace the ministry of the Spirit through that 
book, and while reading the book, just have that 
one thought in your mind, making notes as you 
read; it may take you a week or two according to 
your time and the diligent application you give to 
it. Then review the Epistle to the Ephesians; 
there are six chapters in that Epistle and the Spirit 
is mentioned in every chapter. So if you will 
study a book, noting what is said about the Spirit, 
you will find a great deal of comfort and delight 
and spiritual profit in that study. 

Now, let us open our Bibles at John xiv. 16. 
' ( And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
forever." I wish to call your attention to the 

(41) " 



42 Spiritual Life. 

Spirit as the Spirit of Revelation. He reveals to 
us the things of Jesus Christ. 1 1 1 will pray the 
Father and He shall give you another Comforter that 
he may abide with you forever. " The Comforter 
is the Holy Spirit, who is Christ's Vicar on earth; 
Christ's substitute; He comes to take the place of 
Jesus. Many persons think the Pope is Antichrist, 
but I never can understand how the Pope is Anti- 
christ, for this reason, the Bible says specifically 
that Antichrist when he comes will deny the 
Father and the Son, that Antichrist will be an in- 
fidel. The Pope honors the Father and the Son, 
not only in His humanity as the son of the Blessed 
Virgin, but he also fully recognizes the divinity of 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But the Pope claims 
to be Christ's Vicar on earth, and he occupies the 
Holy See, which is an abbreviation of the Holy 
Seat, so that the sin of the Pope is a sin against 
the Holy Ghost, for his assumption is a denial of 
the Spirit of God, who has come in his personal 
presence to be Christ's Vicar on earth and to occupy 
the Holy See, which is the Church, the Temple of 
God. The Holy Seat is the heart of the believer, 
and the Spirit has come as Christ's representative 
to earth to transact business for Him, so that when 
the Pope claims to be the Vicar of Christ, he there- 
fore denies the Spirit and sins against Him. 

But the Protestant Church is not guiltless. 
Our evangelical orthodox churches, while not deny- 



The Spirit of Revelation. 43 

ing the Spirit, yet ignore His presence, so that we 
also have in great measure sinned against the Holy 
Spirit. Jesus said, I will send One who shall abide 
with you forever, another Comforter, the Paraclete, 
the Advocate, the Intercessor, who shall be with 
you and in you. 

John xv. 26. u But when the Comforter is come, 
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the 
Father, he shall testify of me." This then is the 
main work of the Spirit of God, testifying of an 
absent Christ ; testifying of a risen Christ. John 
xvi. 13. The newspaper can only tell us of things 
which have transpired ; the Bible speaks of things to 
come. It is the best kind of a newspaper, for it 
predicts future things. The Holy Spirit is the 
Spirit of prophecy. He makes known to us the 
future, so that the believer need not be speculating 
concerning the things of the future ; the things con- 
cerning our Lord and His people, and concerning 
this planet upon which we live. c ' He shall show 
you things to come." The Holy Spirit is the re- 
vealer of Jesus Christ. Suppose there is a veil 
across this platform, all these ministers on the plat- 
form will be in obscurity, you cannot see what is 
behind the veil; but when the veil is drawn aside 
you see clearly. Revelation means the rolling back 
of the veil. There is a veil on the human heart ; 
we cannot see spiritual things, but the Holy Spirit 



44 Spiritual Life. 

comes and draws aside the veil, opening our eyes 
and enlightening our understanding, giving us the 
power to perceive spiritual things, and He sets 
Jesus Christ before us so that we shall see Him. 
If we are acquainted with the Holy Spirit in His 
gracious ministry we shall become more fully ac- 
quainted with Christ. But we must not be look- 
ing for any mystical work of the Spirit apart from 
His Word. Through it He will give to us a clear 
and complete knowledge of our L,ord Jesus Christ. 
And here arises the question : Is it possible to 
believe in, or love an absent person ? Is it possible to 
love one whom we have never seen, with whom we 
have never spoken ? Certainly, it is. The Lord 
Jesus is absent, but the Holy Spirit can reveal Him 
to us so really that our hearts will throb in love to 
Him, and like Peter, we can say, "Whom not hav- 
ing seen, we love ; in whom, though now we see 
him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeak- 
able and full of glory." When you have time I 
want you to read the 24th chapter of Genesis, 
where we have a very beautiful story, interesting, 
touching, pathetic; it is also a very striking illus- 
tration of God's method of revealing the truth to 
the believing soul. Abraham is a father, Isaac is 
his son. Abraham has a faithful servant who has 
been a long time in his household, and has become 
as a member of his family. He said to him one 
day, ' ' You go to the daughters of my people and 



The Spirit of Revelation. 45 

provide a wife for my son; do not go among the 
Canaanites ' ' — for old Abraham did not wish to have 
any unequal yokes in his family — "go find a wife 
amongst my own people for my son." Now, this 
was a very peculiar mission on which this servant 
was sent, but he prayed God to go with him, and 
when he reached the end of his journey there was 
Rebekah, and after a little conversation the servant 
thought, perhaps this is the one whom God has pro- 
vided for my master's son. I want you to mark the 
delicate tact of the man. He talked to her and 
said, ' ' I belong to Abraham ;' ' then he talked about 
Abraham for a time, and about himself as the ser- 
vant; but mark you, everything he said about 
Abraham and everything he said about himself 
related to Isaac ; he led the mind and heart of the 
damsel to Isaac. ' ' My master has an only son and 
his name is Isaac; Abraham is rich and Isaac is his 
heir." Of course that would be attractive to a 
damsel, to hear of a true, good young man, very rich. 
After a little while he opens the casket and takes 
out some jewels and puts them upon her arms and 
neck, and said, Now these are but the first-fruits 
of the wealth that Isaac has. And then he talked 
about Isaac in a great many sweet ways, and while 
he talked the heart of the damsel began to throb 
with love towards the man she had never seen. 
And when the servant said, ' ' Will you go with me 
and be his wife?" she said, "I will go." Why? 



46 Spiritual Life. 

The revelation of Isaac was so real, the portrayal 
of the man was so graphic it seemed as if she had 
known Isaac all her life-time. 

So, beloved friends, our Master is very great, He is 
the risen Lord Jesus, He is Lord of all, and the Holy 
Spirit conies as the servant of the Father and of the 
Son to this earth to find a bride for that Isaac. He 
comes down to earth to speak with us about the 
Lord; He talks not about Himself except in rela- 
tion to Christ. Then He takes the promises and 
precepts and beautiful things which belong to 
Christ, and gives us to understand this is just a little 
of the riches of His grace. And as we believe, our 
poor hearts begin to beat with love towards a person 
we have never seen, because the Holy Spirit makes 
Him real to us. This is the work of the Spirit, to 
make Christ real to the believing heart. He is no 
mystic Christ, no mere dogma Christ, but the Christ 
for the human heart; He is full of sympathy, He has 
suffered for us, He gave His life for us, and the 
Holy Spirit makes Him and His redeeming love real 
to our faith, so that we love Him. 

Again, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the resources 
of Christ. There are a great many of us Christians 
who are living on a cent a day. You know what 
I mean. The Lord Jesus is infinite in His resources ; 
He gives to us liberally all things to enjoy, and the 
Holy Spirit is here to make known to us the deep, 
infinite, eternal riches of Christ. Not only, dear 



The Spirit of Revelation. ^rj 

friends, are all things spiritual in the hands of Jesus, 
but all things material. The cattle upon a thousand 
hills belong to Him; so also the gold and the silver. 
Where does George Muller get his means for feed- 
ing and educating 2000 orphans ? He goes to His 
Lord, for the Spirit has revealed to George Muller 
the infinite resources of Jesus. Hudson Taylor 
cares for hundreds of missionaries in China, and 
neither he nor Mr. Muller ever had a pink tea, or 
an oyster supper, or a broom drill, or a begging 
expedition to raise money for the Master's work. 

There was a man, called Joseph, who, in his 
youthful days, was supposed to have been eaten by 
animals. In after years the brothers were in Egypt 
in the time of famine, and there Joseph revealed 
himself to them. He forgave them; he filled their 
sacks with corn; he sent them down to Canaan, 
and said, Tell my father that I am alive and Gov- 
ernor over the land of Egypt, and bring my father 
up to me. And the sons came into the tent of 
their father and said, ' ' Father, Joseph is alive and 
Governor over the land of Egypt!" Now if they 
had broken it gently and said first, " he is alive, ' ' 
and then afterwards "he is well off," and given 
him time so that he could take it in little by little, 
they might have convinced him; but the heart of 
the old man sank within him, and he said, ' ' You 
mock me!" and turning, it may be, to the little 
coat hanging on the tent-peg, he said something 



48 Spiritual Life. 

like this: My sons, there is proof that Joseph is 
dead. Joseph is to me but a sacred memory, and 
you harrow my feelings in my old age by talking 
in that flippant way about him. How can they 
convince their father that Joseph is alive and Gov- 
ernor of all the land of Egypt, and that the old 
man shall henceforth have plenty? They invite 
him to the open door; and as he stood there in the 
tent-door he saw a chariot, the like of which he 
had never looked on, with caparisoned horses. 
"What is this ?" " Those are Joseph's horses and 
chariot come for you. " u And those wagons — 
what are these?" u Those are provisions for your 
comfort on the journey." "What are those?" 
"Those are provided for us and our families." 
"What is that?" Wagon after wagon; it was 
such a revelation to the old man that he cried out, 
"It is enough; my son is yet alive; I will go and 
see him before I die." 

My dear friends, the Holy Spirit comes to us, 
poor pauper Christians that we are, and He brings 
before us in review chariot after chariot, wagon 
after wagon, promises, provisions of grace, all to 
persuade us, to assure us that Christ is rich; that 
we need not starve; that He has all things in His 
possession. And when that truth gets down into 
our hearts and lives we can go on our way rejoic- 
ing, singing, " Our Joseph is alive, our Joseph is 
rich. ' ' So let us not go creeping along, but walk 



The Spirit of Revelation. 49 

erect as Sons of God, when our Elder Brother has 
all things at His disposal; spiritual wealth, and all 
other things which we need. This, then, is the 
work of the Spirit, revealing Christ, making Him 
so real that we shall transact business with Christ, 
who is Governor over all worlds, and who has all 
resources in His possession. 

In the next place, not only is He the Spirit of 
Revelation, but He is the Anointing Spirit. 1 John 
ii. 20, 27. The unction of the 20th and the anoint- 
ing of the 27th verse are the same thing. Now what 
is the purpose of the Spirit in this respect ? The 
Spirit is set forth under the emblem of oil. What 
is the use of oil ? Oil is for many purposes. First, 
we find that oil is for knowledge ; in the second 
place, oil is for joy; then oil is for beauty; oil is 
also for power. Acts x. 43. God anointeth ; the 
Holy Spirit is the oil. In Luke iv. 10, we read ' ( The 
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He hath 
anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor." 
As Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, so are His 
people. There are two things referred to in the 
Old Testament ; the blood and the oil. In the 
14th chapter of Leviticus we have the cleansing 
of the leper. One bird is killed and the other bird 
is dipped into the blood of the dead bird and turned 
loose into the field, while the blood is sprinkled on 
the leper seven times. Then follow the results of 
the cleansing. A great many Christians are sat- 

4 



50 Spiritual Life. 

isfied to have the blood of Jesus cleanse their past 
life, but, my dear friends, that is only the first in- 
stalment of salvation. When that leper had been 
cleansed, he shaved off all his hair, washed himself 
in water, and stood there a cleansed man, then the 
priest gave other directions. Observe : The priest 
took of the blood of the trespass offering and put it 
upon his right ear and upon his thumb and upon 
his toe, touching him with blood from head to foot. 
The ear represents the senses ; the hand, labor, 
and the foot, walk. All touched with the blood of 
the trespass offering. This is exceedingly inter- 
esting to us, because it is typical. When the leper 
had his senses and all his faculties dedicated with 
blood, then the priest took the oil and placed the 
oil upon the blood, associated it with the blood, 
upon the ear and upon the thumb and upon the 
toe. Oil is the symbol of the Spirit; hence the rest 
of the oil was poured upon his head and it flowed 
down to the skirts of his garment ; so that this 
leper was not only touched with blood, but also 
anointed with oil. There is a remarkable passage 
in i Cor. vi. 19, 20, " Know ye not that your body 
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, 
which ye have of God? . . . For ye are bought 
with a price." Thus we have the blood and the 
Spirit together, but the blood always preceding; 
the blood first and then the Spirit afterwards ; so 
that the oil upon the leper represents the fact that 



The Spirit of Revelation. 51 

the sinner cleansed in trie blood of Jesus, is in the 
next place touched with the holy oil; the holy 
unction is placed upon him ; upon his head, upon 
his hands, and upon his feet ; the whole Christian 
is now dedicated to the Iyord by the indwelling of 
the Spirit of God. 

Now, let us look at these four points. First, the 
anointing is for knowledge, that you may know; 
as when Jesus anointed the eyes of the blind 
man, then he saw ; he went and washed and re- 
ceived his sight. Jesus said to the Church at 
L,aodicea, ( ' Thou thoughtest that thou wast rich, 
and increased in goods and had need of nothing, 
and knowest not that thou art poor and miserable 
and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me 
gold tried in the fire that thou may est be rich ; and 
white raiment that thou may est be clothed, and that 
the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and 
anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest 
see." My dear friends, when the Holy Spirit 
comes as the oil, it is that we may know Christ; 
then our eyes are opened ; our blindness is removed. 
The Church blind ? Is that possible ? Yes, and 
the Holy Ghost is the oil to heal the spiritual eye 
of the Christian that he may see by its wonderful 
power and efficacy. Don't you know that the 
Christian believer sees very much farther than the 
unregenerate philosopher ; the holy oil, this Spirit 
of revelation, is given him for knowledge, and he 
can see farther than the natural man. 



52 Spiritual Life. 

The second purpose of the oil is for joy. Psalm 
xlv. 7. "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest 
wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed 
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." 
This Psalm is prophetic of Jesus; u He was anointed 
with the oil of gladness above his fellows. ' ' There 
is a traditional saying that Jesus was never known 
to smile, that Pie was never known to laugh, but 
passed through this world a man of sorrows, gloomy 
and sad. It is true He is called the ' ' Man of Sor- 
rows ; ' ' He saw enough of sin in this world to fill 
Him with sorrow; but it is also true that He was a 
Man of Joy, so we read that Jesus rejoiced in spirit 
and said, u I thank thee, oh Father, L,ord of Heaven 
and earth." Again and again it is intimated that 
divine joy possessed the heart of Jesus, and He went 
through life filled with gladness. The Holy Spirit, 
the Spirit of gladness was upon Him. A little girl 
heard that Jesus never smiled, and she said, 
' l Mamma, that cannot be so, for if He never smiled 
how would the little children come to Him, for we 
are told they did come to Him, and if He had never 
smiled, they would not have come to Him." The 
Holy Spirit has come to us that we too might be 
joyful. Gal. v. 21. u The fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy." Beloved friends, who are happier than 
the Lord's children ? They can have their recrea- 
tions, their amusements, their innocent diversions. 
I believe they should be very happy; I mean the 



The Spirit of Revelation, 53 

children of God, who are walking in communion 
with their L,ord and King. 

In the next place, the Holy Spirit, as the oil, 
makes us beautiful. Psalms civ. 15. Orientals 
use oil very lavishly; they use it for medicinal pur- 
poses and as a beautifier, and the more they shine, 
the greater beauties they are considered to be. 
Now the Holy Spirit is represented by that figure; 
( ' oil, which makes the face to shine. ' ' There is a 
spiritual meaning underneath all that. My dear 
friends, the only beauty this world's children talk 
of is outward beauty. There are a great many 
beautiful faces in this world, and there are some beau- 
tiful faces in this city. But though some of us are 
homely enough, nevertheless we can be beautiful, 
for when the Spirit of God fills mind and heart, 
and the Word of God abides in us, there will be a 
spiritual charm and a heavenly peacefulness radiat- 
ing from the most unhandsome face. It has often 
been said that Mr. Spurgeon was a very ordinary- 
looking man; people were disappointed when they 
saw him. It is true he was not handsome, not 
even in his young manhood, when I first became ac- 
quainted with him. But when preaching, or even 
in conversation, talking about the I^ord, I have 
seen that face light up like the face of an angel; I 
have seen the beauty of the I^ord reflected from 
that rugged face. I received a letter from the dear 
man which reached me after he had gone to heaven. 



54 Spiritual Life. 

He was feeling well some days before his death, and 
the letter which he wrote me was tender and sweet. 
Spiritual beauty is the kind of beauty which the 
Spirit brings out in the life of the believer. The 
angles and the harsh lines He tones down and the 
corners He rounds off. The Spirit of God has a 
good deal of work to do on some of us, and He has 
been very patient with us. My dear friends, 
Society may talk about her balls; her votaries may 
go through ball-rooms laden down with diamond 
jewels, but there is no ball-room beauty to be 
compared with the plainest person in whom the 
Spirit of God dwells. ( ' L,et the beauty of the 
L,ord our God be upon us." 

The Holy Spirit as oil is given to us for power. 
The ancient athletes and gymnasts used it for lubri- 
cating all parts of their body, so that they were 
able to bend easily. The oil has been in constant 
use by Orientals for strengthening the body, so the 
divine Oil has been given to us that we may be 
strong in spiritual life. 

When you look into the Old Testament, and espe- 
cially the book of Judges, you will find how the Spirit 
of God came upon men, anointing them; He came 
upon Shamgar, and upon Samson; He came upon 
Gideon, who went forth with his pitchers and lamps 
and overcame the Midianites. He came upon judges 
and upon kings to give them strength for action, 
to qualify them for service. He comes now upon 



The Spirit of Revelation. 55 

us to impart strength for toil, and power for service. 
My dear friends, this is an important consideration; 
are we willing to have the power of the Spirit rest- 
ing upon us, not only for public service, but also 
for personal holiness? I believe that if the Spirit 
of God rests upon us, we will know how to rock a 
cradle better, how to do an errand better, how to 
do business better, how to accomplish the most 
menial things better; for if indeed we are anointed 
with the Spirit of God there will be a power upon 
us for everything we seek to do, and surely we need 
to be anointed that our hands might be made 
stronger for labor, our services be more complete 
and our character more perfect. 

Now, in closing, is there any way by which 
we can secure this power? Yes, thank God! 
There must be a denial cf self there must be a giv- 
ing up of many things dear to us; there must be a 
hearty surrender of ourselves unto our God. I do 
not mean to say that you are to become a monk or 
a nun, but that the world must have no power over 
you any more; society must not charm you any 
longer. 

When we fulfil the conditions which secure 
spiritual power, turning our backs upon all kinds 
of harmful societies, which are the bane of the 
Church to-day, turning our back upon the world, 
giving our services to the Church of Christ, stand- 
ing by her true pastors and teachers, and in fellow- 



56 Spiritual Life. 

ship with all who love our Lord, then shall life 
indeed be worth living. Brothers and sisters, the 
power of God is for us all. Oh, I do pity from my 
heart brethren who are wasting their strength, sis- 
ters who are squandering their energies on things 
that do not profit. When I see many of our best 
workers drawn aside by one thing and another 
from the true object of life, I do not care even if it 
be a legitimate pursuit, I know it is grievous to the 
Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is unlimited in 
power, infinite in grace. He may take up some 
poor, weak sister here to-day, and before twelve 
months you may see her bringing in her sheaves ; 
He may take up some brother who has never 
worked for God and use him mightily in sav- 
ing the lost. I^et us expect great things. God 
bless you and grant you the anointing of the Spirit. 




Ill 

THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD. 

HE Holy Spirit sustains varied relations 
to the Holy Scriptures. He is inde- 
pendent of them in personal sovereignty, 
yet identified with them in official min- 
istry. The Spirit is known only through His word, 
even as a man is known by his words, which are 
the outward expression of his thoughts. "As a 
man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Yet not 
always is the man hereby fully known. Not so, 
however, with the Spirit, for through the revela- 
tion of Himself, we have accurate knowledge of 
Him — the Holy Spirit. For He wears no mask, 
adopts no disguise, is not hypocritical, is no trickster, 
but is transparent as the sea of glass before the 
throne, clear as the sunbeam, in whom is no dark- 
ness at all. Through the mirror of His Word He 
reflects His pure nature, His manifold characters, 
and the purposes of His ministry. By that Word, 
also, by the thunder of its power, by the sharpness 
of its blade, by the sweetness of its taste, by the 
richness of its mines, by the comfort of its promises, 
and by the nourishment of its doctrines, do we 
further know the Spirit in the majesty of His per- 

(57) 



58 Spiritual Life. 

son and in His manifold ministry. For whatever 
may have been His modes of revelation in former 
ages to patriarchs and prophets, and however varied 
His operations shall be in the ages to come, He 
seems to have limited the instrument of His min- 
istry during this church dispensation to that Word, 
of which He is both Author and Finisher. 

There is, however, a First Word, who is from 
the beginning, who in the fullness of time became 
incarnate, and there is another Word, called ' ' living 
y Bpistles," with each of whom, also, the blessed 
Spirit has entered into close and vital relations. 
There is, besides, a correspondence between such 
relations, and those He sustains toward the written 
Word, which is, to us, the source of all spiritual 
knowledge of things past, present, and to come. 
With each, the Incarnate Word, the living Epistles 
of Christ, and the written Scriptures, is the Holy 
Spirit organically related. It was He who prepared 
that Temple of our L,ord's body, which concealed, 
yet revealed, the glory of the only-begotten Son of 
God. It was He who, in dove-like appearance, 
descended upon Jesus on the banks of the Jordan, 
and abode upon Him. Thus He came, as the 
Father's seal of divine authentication, upon the 
Beloved Son. Priests and prophets He visited, 
endowed, inspired, but with none of them could it 
be said that He abode. And so throughout our 
Lord's earthly life, in preparation for His unique 



The Spirit and the Word. 59 

mission, He was anointed of the Spirit, led of the 
Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, comforted through 
the Spirit ; He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin by 
the same Spirit, yea, was finally raised from the 
dead by Him — who is the quickening Spirit. 

Again, observe the very intimate relations which 
the Holy Spirit holds to the believer. For the 
Christian is one born of the Spirit, sealed with the 
Spirit, led of the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, 
quickened by the Spirit, first in his inner life, and 
finally in his resurrection from the dead. 

Thus, also, do we perceive like relations between 
the letter of Scripture and the living Spirit. May 
we not say truly that it is born of the Spirit, it 
has been baptized with the Spirit, its genuineness 
is attested by this divine seal upon it? It is 
anointed with the Spirit, it is made quick and 
powerful, a living resurrection Word by the same 
Spirit. As Jesus was author and finisher of His 
own personal faith, so is He, the Spirit, author 
and finisher of that ' ' word of faith, ' ' which is our 
warrant of faith, our ground of faith, our instructor 
in faith, our incentive to faith, and our rule of 
faith. 

I wish to submit for your consideration four pro- 
positions. 

I. First proposition : The Holy Spirit is sole 
Author of Holy Scripture. 

1. He is the author of revelation in its totality. 



60 Spiritual Life. 

The Bible is not of man, neither by men, even as the 
stream is not of the river channel. Yet as channel 
and stream are closely related, and identified one 
with another, so are the hnman writers and the 
writings in close identity. But only forth from the 
fountain-mind of the Eternal Spirit, who is inde- 
pendent, sovereign, original, and originating, have 
these Scripture streams descended through their 
human channels to us. 

2. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture in 
its thoughts and words. We do not indeed at- 
tribute to Him every recorded utterance. There 
are phrases in the book entirely alien to the Spirit 
of God. The words of Satan — words of demons — 
words of heathen poets — words of scribes, pharisees, 
hypocrites — words of bad men and mistakes of good 
men are not divine words. It suited the purpose 
of the Spirit, however, to have them recorded ; and 
He accordingly inspired holy men to write them, 
1 ' for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness, that the man of God might be per- 
fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

The mission and office of the Spirit were thus 
announced by Jesus : " Howbeit when He the Spirit 
of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: 
for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever 
He shall hear, that shall He speak : and He will 
show you things to come ' ' (John xvi. 1 3). The 
Holy Spirit must make use of human language, not 



The Spirit and the Word. 61 

because of His impotence, but because of our in- 
firmities. " He shall speak." He gave the writers 
words, which words are the original Scriptures. 
It has been frequently stated that the Holy Spirit 
had for the object of His mysterious inspiration, 
not the writers, but the writings. The writers 
were fallible men ; the writings infallible communi- 
cations. The words employed by the Spirit are 
human words, and may form the vehicle of ordinary 
human intelligence, but when selected by the 
Spirit to convey divine revelations they become 
divine words. Therefore, in this relation are they 
called the words of the Spirit. ' ' Which things 
also we speak, not in the words which man's wis- 
dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. " 

As the body of the primal man was made out of 
the earth, into which God breathed the breath of 
life, and man became a living soul; so the Holy 
Spirit has taken the earthly words of human lan- 
guage out of which He forms the body of Scrip- 
ture, and into which He breathes the living thought, 
and thereby the Book becomes a Book of Iyife. 
" Every Scripture is God -breathed." 

L,et us consider the testimony of Jesus on this 
point. In Mark xii. 36, our lord's words are re- 
corded, where He quotes from Ps. ex. Not accident- 
ally does He refer to the author of that Psalm, when 
rebuking the secularized scribes of the temple, in 
the words, "David himself said by The Holy 



62 



Spiritual Life. 



Ghost." The Psalm is the language of David. 
David himself said it, for David was mouth-piece, 
or penman. But it is emphatically the language 
of the Holy Ghost who spake through David, and 
whose word was on his tongue. (2 Sam. xxiii. 2.) 

Again, when Peter, in Acts i. 16, refers to the 
forty-first Psalm, prophetic of Judas Iscariot, he 
makes this application of it : " Men and brethren, 
this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which 
the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake 
before concerning Judas, which was guide to them 
that took Jesus." Thus does Peter attribute the 
authorship of the words of the Psalm to the Holy 
Spirit of God. 

So also in Acts iv. 25, the language is most ex- 
pressive, "Who by the mouth of Thy servant 
David HAST said." Paul, likewise having been 
taught the source of that wonderful communication 
to Isaiah recorded in chap. vi. , declares, ' ' WELL 
spake the Holy Ghost through Isaiah the 
prophet." Nor must we forget that climacteric 
statement of Peter who was inspired to write, ( i No 
prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men 
Spake from God, being moved by the Holy 
Ghost." 

How misleading, therefore, is any theory of In- 
spiration which allows the admixture of human 
mistakes with divine communications; the mistakes 
of human speech coupled to divine thought. And 



The Spirit and the Word. 63 

how flattering to human pride that intellect, intui- 
tion, or consciousness shall determine which is truth 
and which is fable. No true lover of God's Word 
will permit the majesty of that Word to be thus 
degraded, in order that the perverted, distorted 
and corrupted reason of man shall be exalted. Nor 
will any Christian believer having due reverence 
toward the Holy Spirit entertain such rationalistic 
and unscriptural doctrine. The higher critics 
and the lower critics would not manifest their 
dislike of the complete inspiration of the words 
of Scripture, were it not for the insane pas- 
sion of the natural man to regard reason as the 
touchstone and test of revelation. Calmly and 
wisely has Professor Gaussen written of the Bible; 
u Its first line and its last, with all the instruction 
(whether understood or not) which it contains, are 
by the same Author. Whatever the sacred penmen 
may have been — whatever their circumstances, 
their impressions, their comprehension of what 
they wrote, and the measure of their individuality 
brought into operation by this divine and mysteri- 
ous power — they have all, with a faithful and 
directed hand, written in the same volume, under 
the guidance of the same Master, in whose estima- 
tion ' a thousand years are as one day, ' and the re- 
sult is — the Bible. Let us not lose our time, then, 
in vain questioning, but study the Book. It is the 
word of Moses, of Amos, of John and of Paul, but 



64 Spiritual Life. 

it is the thought of God, and the word of God. 
It is therefore erroneous language to say, Certain 
passages of the Bible are those of man, and others 
those of God. No; every verse therein, without 
exception is of man, and they are also all, without 
exception, those of God. ' ' Bven so. The humble, 
devout believer recognizes the divine Author in 
every verse and word of Scripture, and values it as 
an integral part of the great volume of Revelation, 
stamped from Genesis to Apocalypse with the im- 
press of divine life, and light, and power, even as 
the thoughtful naturalist sees in every trembling 
leaf the mark of intelligent design, and under- 
stands its relation to the whole forest. 

II. Second proposition: The ministry of the 
Spirit and of the Word is a co-ordinate 
ministry. He who is the author of the word is 
pleased to use it as the instrument of His diversi- 
fied operations in this dispensation of the Spirit. 

1. The identity of the Spirit and Word is re- 
cognized in the names given to each. As for in- 
stance : ' ' Spirit of God, " " word of God ;' ' ' 'Spirit 
of truth, " u word of truth ;" " Spirit of grace, ' ' 
"word of His grace ;" "Spirit of life," "word of 
life ;" " Spirit of wisdom, " u word of wisdom ;' ' 
"Spirit of Christ," "word of Christ;" "Spirit of 
power," "word of power;" "The good Spirit," 
"the good word of God;" "Spirit of prophecy," 
"word of prophecy;" "The Comforter," "com- 
fort one another with these words. ' ' 



The Spirit and the Word. 65 

2. Their identity is recognized in the nse of 
emblems common to the Spirit and Word. 

(1) Dew. In Hosea xiv. 5, we find the promise, 
"I will be as the dew unto Israel," a favorite and 
appropriate emblem of the Spirit. In Deut. xxxii. 
2, Jehovah declares, u My speech shall distil as the 
dew. ' ' 

(2) Rain. Ps. lxxii. 6: u He shall come down 
as showers upon the mown grass, as showers that 
water the earth." (comp. Isaiah xliv. 3.) Deut. 
xxxii. 2 : " My doctrine shall drop as the rain . . . 
as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the 
showers upon the earth." 

(3) Water. John vii. 37: "He that believe th 
on me, out of his belly (heart or inward parts) 
shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He 
of the Spirit, that they which believe in Him 
should receive." Bph. v. 25: "Christ loved the 
Church and gave Himself for it, that He might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, 
by the word." 

(4) Light. 2 Sam. xxiii. 4: "He shall be as 
the light of the morning, when the sun riseth." 
Ps. cxix. 105', "Thy word .... is a light." 
Prov. vi. 23: " The law is light." 

(5) Fire. When the Holy Spirit descended on 
the day of Pentecost, * ' there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire .... and they were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost." (Acts n\ 3, 4.) 

5 



66 Spiritual Life. 

Jer. xxiii. 29: " Is not my word like as fire? saith 
the Lord." 

3. Proof of co-ordinate ministry of the Spirit 
and the Word by the effects produced. 

(1) In regeneration. "Not by works of right- 
eousness which we have done, but according to 
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regene- 
ration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 
iii. 4-6.) Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is a 
foundation creed in all evangelical churches. It is 
an essential Bible doctrine. For ' ( except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." But regeneration is 
also the office of the Word. " Being born again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for- 
ever." (1 Pet. i. 23.) The Holy Spirit begets the 
soul anew through the word. The Spirit regene- 
rates, and the Word regenerates; hence the neces- 
sity of preaching the Word in order to give the 
Spirit the opportunity He seeks to make men wise 
unto salvation. While human speculation, natural 
philosophy, culture, politics, or science, form the 
substance of so many sermons, we are not surprised 
that regeneration is practically ignored, and its 
deep need forgotten. The Spirit's injunction to 
the ministry of every age is, ' ( Preach the Word. ' ' 

(2) In sanctification. The Holy Spirit enters the 
believing heart as the sane tifier. (1 Pet. i. 2.) But 



The Spirit and the Word. 67 

also in the Lord's prayer we note the petition, 
4 ' Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is 
truth;" i. e., the whole of truth. (John xvii. 17.) 
There are various aspects of sanctification which 
cannot now be discussed, such as sanctification 
through the blood of Christ, sanctification by faith, 
etc. Our present work is to call attention to the 
fact that the Spirit of God sanctifies the regenerated 
man, making use of the Word of God for his 
cleansing and purification. * ' Now are ye clean 
through the word which I have spoken unto you. ' ' 
(John xv. 3.) 

(3) The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. ' ' But 
when the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth 
which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify 
of me." (John xv. 26.) But it is co-ordinate testi- 
mony. ' ' Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye 
think ye have eternal life : and they are they which 
testify of me." (John v. 39.) The Scriptures our 
Ivord refers to, are those of the Old Testament. 
Moses in the L,aw, David in the Psalms, and all 
the Prophets testified of Him. Jesus Himself re- 
bukes every reviler of Moses. ' 'And beginning at 
Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 

Himself. And He said unto them, These 

are the words which I spake unto you, while I was 
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled 



68 Spiritual Life. 

which were written in the law of Moses, and in the 
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then 
opened He their understanding, that they might 
understand the Scriptures." 

(4) The Spirit and the Word work unitedly in 
the edification of the Church. The Holy Spirit is 
builder. He hews out the living stones from the 
quarry, fitting them into the spiritual temple, which 
groweth up as the habitation of God. (Eph. ii. 22.) 
Yet Paul, in his farewell address to the Ephesian 
elders, commended them to the word of God's 
grace, ' ' which is able to build you up. ' ' (Acts xx. 
32.) Through the Holy Spirit's gracious ministry 
of the divine Word is the Church, whether viewed 
as a structure, or as the mystical body of Christ, 
truly edified. 

(5) The work of revival is the work of the 
Spirit. When the promised dew descends, revival 
begins. (Hosea xiv. 5.) No intelligent Christian 
will designate the most effective preacher a "re- 
vivalist ;" and no man taught of the Spirit will 
arrogate to himself this distinguishing title. Re- 
vivals may be simulated, but the work when real 
is the product of the quickening Spirit. The 
Word however, has also its place in every genuine 
revival. In Neh. viii 1-9, we have an example of 
the reviving power of the preached Word. The 
Ivevites read out of the law distinctly, and gave the 
sense, and caused the people to understand the 



The Spirit and the Word. 69 

reading. And the word was applied in power by 
the Spirit. So also in Kzek. xxxvii. 1-10, we dis- 
cover the co-operation of these two in the revival 
of the dry bones, who stood upon their feet an 
exceeding great army. And thus, as the prophecy 
foretells, shall the scattered tribes of Israel be nation- 
ally revived in the next age of millennial blessed- 
ness, when the Spirit is poured forth upon them, 
and they are found hearing the words of the Lord. 

(6) Gtiidance. The promise of Jesus is, ' ( He 
will guide you into all the truth." Thus does our 
Lord comfort His disciples, in assuring them that 
after His departure, the Holy Spirit would come 
and be their guide. Also in Pro v. vi. 22, guidance 
is attributed to the Word; u When thou goest, it 
shall lead thee." Here, then, is provision for our 
journey; an infallible guide flashing on our path- 
way this unfailing light. No feeble light of nature 
nor flickering light of consciousness can illumine 
the path from earth to heaven. Only the Holy 
Spirit's clear, steady, noon-day light of Scripture 
will prove sufficient. 

(7) Co-operation in producing pure and sponta- 
neous worship. u Be filled with the Spirit, speak- 
ing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiri- 
tual songs, singing and making melody in your 
hearts to the Lord ; giving thanks always for all 
things unto God and the Father in the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph. v. 18, 19.) Thus 



jo Spiritual Life. 

the highest expression of worship is the product of 
the divine Spirit in the soul. And herein does the 
Word also fulfill its mission. u Let the word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching 
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord." (Col. iii. 16.) Such are the 
divine effects of the indwelling Word when received 
in the Holy Ghost. It becomes the true basis of 
spiritual experience and the strongest incentive to 
spiritual worship. 

Thus have we traced the unity of both. The 
Word is the Spirit's word and the Spirit's instru- 
ment. Therefore their action is one and the same 
in regeneration, sanctification, testimony, edifica- 
tion, revival, guidance, worship, and every ex- 
perience of that new creation in Christ Jesus — the 
true Christian believer. Sadducean sceptics de- 
nied the supernatural element in the Scriptures 
and brought upon themselves the deserved rebuke 
of Jesus, u Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures 
nor the power of God. ' ' In that declaration does 
our Lord affirm, that divine, superhuman, omnipo- 
tent power is linked with the written Word of God. 

Is it not our privilege, then, to receive that Word 
in its totality and in its tittles; to bow with becom- 
ing reverence before its divine claims; to recognize 
that every type, prophecy, history, parable, doc- 
trine, is given of God; that every word of God is 



The Spirit and the Word. yi 

pure ; that it has been tried and not found wanting, 
and that He from whom it came will abide with it 
forever ? 

III. Third proposition: The Holy Spirit alone 
can give us a right understanding of the 
Word. 

The natural man may by the power of unaided 
intellect throw side-lights upon the human element 
of Scripture. We are deeply indebted to the geol- 
ogist, botanist, historian, grammarian, archaeolo- 
gist, to compilers, and to critics. But to none of 
them, as merely intellectual men, not having the 
Spirit themselves, do we owe aught in the matter 
of spiritual interpretation; " For what man know- 
eth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man 
which is in him? Even so, the things of God 
knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we 
have received not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God. " (i Cor. 
ii. ii, 12.) There are, of course, men of intellect, 
who, thank God, have also the Spirit of God, to 
whom the Church is deeply indebted for spiritual 
interpretation and exposition of the Bible. And 
also there are natural men who reverently aim to 
exalt the Bible from a merely human standpoint, 
who endeavor to account for discrepancies, and 
who seek to explain difficulties. ' ' But the natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 



72 Spiritual Life. 

God, for tliey are foolishness unto him; neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned." (i Cor. ii. 14.) 

And alas ! there are writers of another school who 
disparage the written testimony and deny the Holy 
Spirit, while they irreverently discuss the Christ in 
art, in poetry, in story and in philosophy; whose 
darkened understanding and skeptical tendencies 
can only lead their disciples into the mazes of doubt 
and infidelity. Some of these would fain boast 
that they compliment Jesus as the Ideal Man, while 
they rob Him of His inherent glory as ' ' God mani- 
fest in the flesh. ' ' Truly, ' ' no man can call Jesus 
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. ' ' So, also, ( ' if any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
His." 

Let it, then, be our glad homage, brethren in the 
Lord, to give the Holy Spirit that honor due to Him. 
It is His prerogative to enlighten our minds, and 
to illuminate the Word, that we may behold won- 
drous things therein. ' ' We have an Unction from 
the Holy One," that we might know divine things. 
He will teach us, He will prophesy to us, He will 
bring past spiritual knowledge to our remembrance. 
He will reveal Christ to our inner life, when, 
through patient, diligent study of the divine Book 
we wait upon His ministry, and prayfully seek His 
proffered help. 

IV. Fourth proposition : The Holy Spirit in- 
variably HONORS THE DIVINE WORD. 



The Spirit and the Word. 73 

The promises are abundant insuring its success. 
Isa. lv. 10, 11. "For as the rain cometh down, 
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not 
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, 
and bread to the eater. So shall my word be 
that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not re- 
turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish that 
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing 
whereto I sent it. ' ' We read in the Book of Acts : 
"While Peter spake these words, the Holy Ghost 
fell on all them that heard the Word." What 
words? Simply Old Testament words, rightly in- 
terpreted. The Apostles preached the Word. Their 
sermons were Bible-readings. When Christ is ex- 
alted according to the Gospel, through its pro- 
clamation the Holy Spirit will glorify Him in those 
that believe. He presents to them through the 
Gospel the things of Jesus, and thus Jesus becomes 
to the believing soul both real and personal. It 
need scarcely be added that pastors, evangelists, 
missionaries and other preachers who deal largely 
with the Scriptures, and who earnestly invoke the 
Spirit's anointing, are the men and women whom 
the King delights to honor. 

In conclusion : The knowledge of these relations 
between the Spirit and the Scriptures will save us 
from a two-fold danger. 1. First, from searching 
the Word for purely mental gratification — from an 



74 Spiritual Life. 

intellectual pursuit after truth. It is possible to be 
adepts in biblical science, and yet be as dry in our 
spiritual life as Gideon's fleece when no dew from 
heaven fell upon it. Gathered truth, unfelt in the 
soul, unknown by spiritual apprehension, can only 
corrupt like the unused manna. It is possible to 
preach biblical doctrine and be strangers to its 
vitalizing power. Such preaching is dreary, is 
drudgery, is delusive. The heart, not the head, is 
the home of the Word. It seeks admittance there. 
Confession with the mouth, or outward testimony, 
if real, must be the outflow of a believing heart. 
(Rom. x. 9.) Heart-knowledge of the Word must 
be sought after by every Christian who would know 
more of Jesus, who seeks to know the will of God, 
and who gladly recognizes the prerogative of the 
Spirit as the supreme, qualified and infallible Bible 
teacher. 

2. Secondly : bearing in mind the relations of 
both, will also guard us from a dreaded mysticism, 
or a dead sentimentalism. Seeking revelations, or 
experiences from the Holy Spirit, outside of, and 
apart from the Holy Scriptures, leads to fanatical 
extravagances. He needs a keen and watchful eye 
who can readily distinguish the inward monitions 
of the Spirit, from purely human emotions. When 
the voice of God, in His Word, is considered too 
feeble, and a more pronounced voice is demanded 
by the listening soul, let it be remembered that 



The Spirit and the Word. 75 

Satan can mimic to deceive and adopt the gnise of 
a good angel for his evil purpose. The canon of 
Scripture is closed and is complete. Within its 
range we may freely roam in search of truth, our 
trembling hand held in the strong hand of the 
Holy Spirit, our guide. Its pastures are our feed- 
ing-places; its still waters will slake our thirst. 
Rapt visions, celestial dreams, or mysterious inward 
impressions, must not be heeded when antagonistic 
to the revealed will of God, and the true teaching 
of the Spirit in the Bible. It is an evil work to 
attribute to the Spirit monitions and emotions for 
which He is not responsible. He has given us the 
Scriptures. By these He will teach us, and com- 
fort us. In our study of the same, we shall have 
His promised aid; in our Christian work, we shall 
have His needed help. And in distinguishing His 
personality, as co-equal with the Father and the 
Son, from the instrument of His official ministry 
in the Church, namely, His thoughts and Words, 
let us not seek their divorce. For of the Spirit 
and the Word it may be truly said, "What God 
hath joined together, let not man put asunder." 



IV. 




HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

HE present subject is one of great im- 
portance, as well as, I trust, of great 
interest to us all ; and I wish, to be very 
frank with you from trie start. I do 
not know that there are any iron rules for Bible 
study. I believe a great deal depends upon our 
own individual exertion, our personal diligence 
and application. All I can now do is, not to lay 
down rules for study, but to give you hints and 
suggestions. Much will depend upon your own 
earnest endeavor to make the Bible a real study. 

Do not be discouraged ; Rome was not built in 
a day, and you must not expect to be proficient 
Bible students in a day. The acquisition of Bible 
knowledge is really very slow work. There are a 
great many Christians discouraged because they 
hear a man quote Scripture very fluently and very 
accurately, and they feel that they never will attain 
to that proficiency. Every student of the Bible 
with whom I am acquainted, gained his knowledge 
by diligence, patience, and perseverance, year by 
year, gathering little by little at a time. I do not 
know of any good Bible student, who became one 

(76) 



How to Study the Bible. yy 

incidentally, or accidentally, bnt who in this work 
had to make haste slowly. So do not be discour- 
aged in beginning Bible study ; everything depends 
upon your own faithfulness ; use a little time each 
day in this blessed pursuit and you will find very 
soon, by the end of a year or two years or five years, 
if God shall spare you, that your Bible knowledge 
will increase ; and in order to make it of real value 
in your own experience, give it out to others as 
fast as you receive it. Let this be your aim and 
you will find your reward in its successful accom- 
plishment. 

I should like to say also that we shall never be 
proficient Bible students, until we know the purpose 
of the Bible; the value and use of God's most 
blessed word. We need a motive for study; mo- 
tives are greater than methods; methods will take 
care of themselves. The Jews were commanded to 
read the Bible all the time; to write it upon their 
door-posts; to have it as frontlets between their 
eyes; to talk of it by the way; and in social gather- 
ings. The Bible was to be the subject of discourse 
constantly, and so they were commanded to teach 
it to their children and their children's children. 
It was to be their spelling book, their reading book, 
their grammar, their help in devotions, their com- 
fort in trouble, their staff in old age, their light in 
the valley of death. They were to know the word 
of God, to love it, to believe it, to study it and to 
practise it. 



78 Spiritual Life. 

I know an "humble mechanic — and I say this for 
your encouragement — who was once a poor clog- 
dancer on the stage, brought up a Roman Catholic, 
exceedingly ignorant of the Bible, and not a great 
man intellectually. He came into one of our Sun- 
day afternoon meetings, was converted, and there- 
after resolved that he would not read a single book 
for five years but the Bible. He read neither newspa- 
per, nor magazine these five years. The only mo- 
ments he had for study was a little time in the morn- 
ing and at night. He commenced the study of the 
Bible alone; he had no one to guide him or help 
him, but he memorized a verse each day, and could 
repeat 365 verses in a year, which he kept stored 
in his memory. The way he managed was this : 
When he got up in the morning, he took his Bible 
and after reading a few verses, he wrote out some 
one verse on a slip of paper, took it to his factory 
and put it on the bench before him, and often 
through the day while he was filing or sawing, he 
had his eye on that paper ; all day long he was 
memorizing it, meditating upon it, praying about it 
and getting its sweetness down into his soul. For 
five years he kept at it, until now the man's inner 
life is filled with Bible knowledge. Not only that, 
but he has become skillful in its use. He now 
reads other books but only such as will aid him in 
Bible study; and, my friends, I know few men 
in this land who have a profounder grasp of truth 



How to Study the Bible. 79 

than that mechanic. Many pastors request him 
to fill their pulpits on Sundays, and when he stands 
up to preach he speaks in Bible language. He is 
an illustration of the verse, ' ' the base things of 
the world and the things that are not, to bring to 
nought the things that are. ' ' There is something 
marvelous about that man ; he is not a very strong 
man physically ; he is a very ordinary man, but in 
a section of his town known as the most wicked 
part of that city, he started a mission, and more 
than two hundred people were converted by his 
efforts. He gave them God's word which proved 
irresistible. I verily believe it possible that any 
ordinary man, any ordinary woman, any young 
man, any young woman here may become fairly good 
Bible students, if they will take the time which is 
now wasted on mere trifles ; if they will use the 
spare moments and pass them in Bible study, the 
Spirit of God will help them in it, will enlighten 
them, and will empower them to do good in their 
day and generation. 

All the helps, all the suggestions, all the hints 
in the world will be of no use, unless you have 
first of all a motive for study : then be diligent, not 
simply for a month or two, or a year or two, but 
for a lifetime. We should be Bible students right 
along to the very end. 

Well, what is the good of the Bible ? What is 
its special use ? Remember friends, the word of God 



80 Spiritual Life. 

is for regeneration, for sanctification, for growth, 
for purification ; the word of God is for the en- 
largement and enrichment of Christian experience ; 
the word of God is our shield, the word of God is 
our sword, the word of God is a fire, it is a hammer, 
it is a lamp. When we come to know how helpful 
it is for spiritual development, we shall have a 
motive for study. How now shall we study it ? 

You know the old recipe for cooking a hare. 
The first thing is to catch your hare. How to study 
the Bible ? First of all possess a Bible; have a Bible 
of your own. Procure a Bible that you can use. 
Do not depend upon the old loved family Bible in 
the parlor, with its big clasp and the names of the 
family recorded in it; their births and marriages. 
Sometimes when you go home, with your hands a 
little soiled and wish to use it, the good wife would 
not like to have you open it; you cannot use the 
family Bible for study as a rule. Get a Bible and 
do not be afraid to use it; do not try to keep it too 
nice and clean. We ought to adopt the habit of 
bringing our Bibles to the prayer meetings and to 
our church services. I have been a pastor, and I 
have encouraged my people always to bring their 
Bibles to church. We should see with our own 
eyes if the text is there in the Book. I am very 
glad to see so many Bibles in your hands to-day, and 
I wish to say that I have not held a Bible Conference 
for years in any new district of the country under 



How to Study the Bible. 81 

such favorable auspices as these ; I have never had 
a new Conference more favorable than this ; the 
brotherly fellowship, the eagerness of search, the 
taking of notes — why I would like to live among 
you! * My friends, if you have not money enough 
to buy a Bible, forego your spring bonnet; if 
you have not money enough for a new coat go 
without it, if you can secure a Bible in no other 
way. Be sure to have a Bible of your own. 

Another thing about the Bible. Never make a 
jest or a pun upon the word of God, never allow 
anybody to do that in your presence; see that you 
have great reverence for the Book. I believe in 
wit, I believe in brightness, I believe in social in- 
terchange of humorous remark, but I never want 
in any sort of company to hear anybody make a 
pun on the word of God. A twist of a verse will 
leave a perverted exposition on the mind which 
may never be corrected. Some of us have heard 
things said about the Bible which we can never for- 
get. I hope that the generation coming will have a 
profound reverence for God's word, and never make 
it the subject of a jest. May we all show by our con- 
duct that even if we do not understand it, we rever- 
ence it, because it is the word of the living God. 

Then let us not be discouraged because some of 
the Bible is very difficult to understand. Nor 
should we overlook any part of the Bible; let us 

* Wilmington, N. C. 



82 Spiritual Life. 

not overlook the most difficult portions of the 
Book, the historical portions, the Books of Chroni- 
cles, the Books of Kings, the Book of Job ; let us re- 
member that ' ' all Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works. ' ' What a library the 
Bible is for the man of God! By it he may be 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works! 

Then we are to pray for the promised blessing 
to rest upon us while we study. L,uke viii. 22. 
Remember this, the Lord Jesus declares that there 
is a closer relationship existing between Himself 
and his disciples than between Himself and His 
mother and brethren in the flesh. ' ' My mother 
and My brethren are these which hear the word of 
God and do it! " Jesus always honored the Scrip- 
tures. Luke xi, 27, 28. This also is a very re- 
markable statement. The Lord Christ in His human 
life loved His dear mother: oh, how tenderly; but 
when the blessing was pronounced upon the virgin 
mother, Jesus said, ( ' Rather blessed are they that 
hear the word of God and keep it." Rev. i. 1-3. A 
great many people tell me they do not read the Book 
of Revelation, because they do not understand it. 
That is true, we do not understand all of it, but 
there are in it a good many things we do under- 
stand. It does not say, u Blessed is he that under- 



How to Study the Bible. 83 

standeth," but, " blessed is lie that readeth;" so, I 
have never, myself, read through the Book of Re- 
velation, without receiving a blessing. While some- 
times the seals, and the trumpets, and the beasts, 
and the great historical and prophetic passages may 
be beyond our grasp, remember the Book is ' ' the 
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto 
Him, to show unto His servants the things that 
must shortly come to pass." We cannot read it 
without being profited, without being solemnized in 
our minds by that wonderful Book which is given 
us by the Spirit of God. ' ' Blessed is he that 
readeth ; " if you read it, you will get the promised 
blessing, the Lord will not disappoint you. There 
is always blessing accompanying the careful reading 
of any part of the sacred Scriptures. 

In the next place, let me say that when the Lord 
shows us any truth in his word, we are to obey 
that truth at once. The word teaches and further 
prepares for duty; obedience gives capacity to under- 
stand more. I believe that the blessing of Bible 
study ceases when we refuse to accept some clearly- 
revealed truth. John vii. 17. "If any man will 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." 
Rom. xii. 1,2. I think this is an exceedingly im- 
portant verse. Non-conformity to the world, and 
being transformed by the renewing of our mind, 
that we may prove what is that good and accept- 



84 Spiritual Life. 

able and perfect will of God. And the contrary is 
true of those who are conformed to the world, and 
who not being transformed in their minds, are 
not capable of proving what is that good and ac- 
ceptable and perfect will of God. The carnal 
mind cannot grasp spiritual things; the natural 
man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of 
God; they are foolishness unto him; neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned. Consider : 

The importance of Bible Study. Job xxiii. 12. 
" Neither have I gone back from the command- 
ment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his 
mouth more than my necessary food." We go 
back to Job, according to conservative scholars, one 
of the oldest books of the Bible. Job lived very 
early in the history of the world. He did not, 
probably, have any written Bible ; but that which 
he had was more to him than natural food. Now, 
when we are in the spirit of Bible study, so that 
sometimes we forget to eat our bread, we shall 
suffer no bad consequences. It would be a good 
thing for us sometimes to forego a meal, in order 
that we might have leisure for heavenly food. 

Psalms cxix. 140. "Thy word is very pure: 
therefore thy servant loveth it. ' ' David loved the 
word. He had not very much of it, but he loved 
it. Jer. xv. 16. u Thy words were found, and I 
did eat them. ' ' He got them down into the right 



How to Study the Bible. 85 

place. It is not enough to have the word on our 
lips, unless we get it down into the heart. u Thy 
Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my 
heart." There is no occasion why we Christians 
should need a revival meeting, or a minister, or an 
evangelist to stir us up. If, like Jeremiah, we hid 
the word of God in our inner life, it would burn 
within us as fire; we should soon be stirred up by 
its power. If the word of the Lord comes to us 
in all its sweetness and power and warmth, we 
shall be in a revived state all the time. 

Before we can study the Bible, we ought to read 
it. We should read it consecutively, beginning 
with Genesis and ending with Revelation. I never 
set myself the task to read just so many chapters, 
but to read while I have time. In the interrupted 
life which I pursue I cannot always have stated 
periods such as you may have, so I read according 
to my time. If I have time for only half a chap- 
ter, I read it ; if I have time for one chapter, I read 
it. Consecutive reading of the Bible has this great 
advantage: first of all, we shall get a knowledge 
of the books. Each book with its peculiar char- 
acteristics will have an interest for us ; while the 
first or the second reading may not give us very 
much knowledge, yet we are becoming familiar 
with the books. We ought to read the Bible at 
least once a year. It is not a very large Book. 
Some of you will read more novels in that time 



86 Spiritual Life. 

than in bulk would make five or six Bibles. One 
of the great advantages of consecutive reading is 
that we shall notice how often chapters are divided 
in the wrong places. Chapters and verses are 
human divisions. It is a good thing to have a 
paragraph Bible; it is a good habit to read the Re- 
vised Version frequently. If you turn to the fifth 
chapter of the Book of Joshua, you will find at 
the closing of the chapter that a man stands before 
Joshua, near the walls of Jericho. Who is this 
captain of the lord's host? Who is this angel 
messenger? The first verse of the sixth chapter 
is a parenthetical verse. The second verse of the 
sixth chapter, and the last verse of the fifth chap- 
ter, naturally come together. What truth do you 
now discover? For a long time I supposed that 
this messenger was some kind of an angelic being; 
but when I saw the connection of the chapters, I 
knew it was Jesus Himself. Jehovah-Jesus was 
Captain of the lord's host. Jesus foreshadowing 
His incarnation by appearing in human form out- 
side of the walls of Jericho, showing Himself there 
as leader of the host, with victory upon his 
banner. 

The 7th and 8th chapters of John taught me a 
sweet lesson because I did not stop at the end of 
the 7th chapter. The last verse of that chapter 
says, " And every man went unto his own house." 
Suppose I had shut the book then, I would forget 



How to Study the Bible. 87 

how the chapter ended, and when I started a new 
chapter I would not see the connection. The 8th 
chapter begins, " And Jesus went unto the Mount 
of Olives." Every man went to his own house; 
every man had a house, but Jesus went to the 
Mount of Olives ; He had no home. " Foxes have 
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the 
Son of man hath not where to lay his head." I 
tell you, my dear friends, I could not keep back 
the tears as I read that pathetic statement about my 
L/ord and Master, who had no earthly home, no 
couch whereon to lay Himself. 

In reading the Bible consecutively you will come 
upon numbers of such instances and illustrations. 
Every time that you discover a truth about Jesus it 
will be a blessing to you. I thank God for the 
faithful men who have helped me in Bible study, 
but I tell you this : A truth which you discover for 
yourself in your study has more power in your life 
than anything you receive second-hand. You 
ought to be making discoveries all the time. We 
read about doubting Thomas, who would not be- 
lieve when the disciples said, ( ' We have seen the 
Lord," and too many have been flinging stones at 
Thomas for nineteen centuries. Now, I have great 
sympathy with Thomas, for I have been there my- 
self. I have great sympathy with Thomas because 
he would not take the truth of the resurrection 
second-hand. While external evidences are good 



88 Spiritual Life. 

enough in themselves, until we have personal ex- 
perience of the power of His resurrection, evidences 
of themselves are powerless to remove our doubts 
and to hush our fears. 

Yet not only do we see the connection of chapters, 
but we see the connection of verses ; that is a very 
important matter to observe. For instance, L,uke 
xiii. 24, 25. The doctrine deduced from that text 
is that there are a great many persons who make 
an earnest endeavor but who will not be saved, 
because they were not elected to be saved, and no 
matter how much they strive, they will be shut 
out. Is that what it teaches ? If you read both 
verses together, you find it otherwise. Now the 
door is open, but the Judge will come by and by 
and close the door, then those who have not come 
in while the door is open will be shut out forever. 

1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. "But as it is written, Bye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man, the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love him. But God hath 
revealed them unto us by his spirit: for the Spirit 
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. " 
I heard a brother preach on that text, and this was 
the doctrine that he taught: That nobody knows 
anything about heaven or the future; that we have 
to live as well as we can here and trust for the 
future; that God hath some good things prepared 
for those that love Him, but all thoughts about 



How to Study the Bible. 89 

heaven, all thoughts about the millennium, were 
purely speculative. You see he did not read the 
next verse or he would have found that instead of 
having these glorious things hidden from us, they 
are revealed ; the Spirit of prophecy has given us 
in the word knowledge of the future ; heaven is 
known to God's people and the glory of the future 
is revealed to us. I could give you many such 
instances of the value of reading the Bible consecu- 
tively, but these few illustrations will be sufficient. 

In addition to reading the Bible consecutively, 
we are to search diligently. u Search the Scrip- 
tures," said Jesus, and He commended the Phari- 
sees in so far that they searched the Scriptures. 
" But my understanding of that word ' search,' said 
a miner, 4 ( means ' pickaxe ' the Scriptures. ' ' You 
do not get much gold by scratching, but when you 
use the pickaxe you find the nuggets. The Swedes 
have no word for " search," but they have a word, 
which we translate ' ' ransack. ' ' I know when we 
sometimes are hunting for an article we pull open 
the bureau drawer, and will ransack the drawer 
until we find what we are after. L,et us ransack 
the Bible in pursuit of some truth and you will find 
it, but like the Shepherd going after the sheep 
diligently seeking, so must we search until we find. 

Again, we should study the Bible topically. I 
am not going to enlarge upon this feature because 
considering topics is one of the commonest ways 



90 Spiritual Life. 

of studying ; but do not think that you can get 
it all at once; nor imagine the Concordance will 
give you all on each topic. When in Alabama 
some years ago giving Bible readings a brother 
from the North was there and attended one of the 
services. Afterwards he called at my home in 
Philadelphia, and said, " I took notes of the Bible 
reading, and I want you to give me two or three 
readings, because I have not much of a stock and 
I want to get started along that line; I have only 
two hours to catch my train, and I want you to 
give me as many Bible readings as you can." 
' ' How long did it take me to prepare that Bible 
reading?" I inquired. He did not know. 
"Well," I answered, "it took me exactly fifteen 
years." Bible study is a growth. A Bible read- 
ing proper is not simply stringing verses which 
have the same word together ; there must be 
inquiry, investigation, analysis and comparison of 
Scripture with Scripture; taking each particular 
text, reading the text all around it to find out just 
what the real thought is, then you link that with 
the next and the next, and so on. The topic gives 
you the string upon which you can crystallize the 
truth. There are some topics which you can string 
together very happily. If I were a young student, 
I would begin this very night on the doctrine of 
Justification by faith. If I were to spend a year on 
it, it would repay me well. Take the theme, 



How to Study the Bible. 91 

Justification by faith; analyze every verse where 
found; take your time, you may not get far ahead 
the first week or the second week or the third. It 
is like studying stenography; you get acquainted 
first with the various characters, by and by you 
learn to put them together, though you do not 
notice much progress at first. It is like learning 
music, or anything else. But when you have a 
scriptural understanding of Justification by faith, 
not only do you grasp the whole foundation doc- 
trine of the believer's salvation, but you will at the 
same time grasp all related doctrine, and when you 
arise to testify, it will be a clear testimony. You 
never after will talk in any ignorant manner about 
Justification by faith ; the study will abide with you 
forever. Studying the Bible is a task anyhow, but 
earnestly give yourselves to it. 

Do not be vexed with me if I tell you of this 
difficulty. North, South, Bast, West, England, 
Ireland, Scotland, everywhere, one great difficulty 
in the way of Bible study is laziness. The natural 
man is a lazy animal ; he dislikes religious earnest- 
ness. It is far easier for preachers, I tell you hon- 
estly, it is far easier to take a little text and spin 
out a little moral essay than to take the word of 
God and search, investigate, compare, examine, 
until sometimes the head becomes dizzy and the 
hand weary in the use of pen or pencil; but the 
word of God taught and preached has more power 



92 Spiritual Life. 

than all our poor little rhetoric. Brethren and 
friends, let us fight against laziness in Bible study. 
^Once more : We should study the Bible typically. 
Study the types of the Old Testament. How can 
we do it ? It is an exceedingly interesting study. 
Some brethren say to me, "Why, brother, you are 
too fantastical about these types; it is dangerous to 
study Scripture types." Where is the danger? 
"Well, imagination and fancy might run away 
with us." My friend, I dispute your statement; 
any man who makes that statement, I tell him he 
makes that statement because he is ignorant of the 
real design of the types. I declare to you, my 
friends, there is no more danger of the imagination 
running away on the study of types than in any other 
study that I know of. Go back to the 21st chap- 
ter of Numbers, what do you read there? You 
read about the serpents biting the Israelites, and 
Moses lifting up the serpent of brass. What has 
that got to do with us ? We refer to John iii. 14, 
15. Our lyord takes that Old Testament type and 
he makes a proper application of it. Now, suppose 
I were to prepare a sermon on John iii. 14, 15. 
How should I begin ? I do not sit down with John 
iii. 14 before me and try to find everything from 
what is in that passage, but I go back to Numbers 
and read carefully there the history of the whole 
matter; how the serpents came in, and how Moses 
was commanded of God to take the brazen serpent 



How to Study the Bible. 93 

and what he was to do with it. I try to find out 
all the facts of the historical type and then turn to 
its application. The study of the precious Gospel 
will then begin to grow upon me in its beauty, and 
force and fullness. There are many points of com- 
parison and of contrast between this type and its 
antitype. 

Moses struck a rock and the water came leaping 
out of it. What has that to do with me ? There 
is just a little hint given in the 10th chapter of 
1 Cor. 4th v. ' ' They drank of that spiritual rock 
that followed them and that rock was Christ." 
As the water gushed out of the heart of the rock 
and satisfied three million thirsty people, so out of 
the Heart of Jesus flows the river of life and salva- 
tion to quench the thirst of a dying world. What 
a glorious gospel is there! See the 12th chapter 
of Bxodus and read about the lamb that was killed 
and the blood of that lamb. What has that to do 
with me? We turn to 1 Cor. v. 7, and we read, 
' ' Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us, there- 
fore let us keep the feast; not with old leaven, 
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness ; but 
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 

Now, return to the type and read of that lamb 
slain, and see the beautiful type there, then turn 
over to the New Testament and see how this type 
throws its light upon Christ our sacrifice, the Lamb 
of God. The gospel of salvation will grow before 



94 Spiritual Life. 

our wondering rnind as we pursue this line of com- 
parison. Now, there are many of these types 
scattered through the books of Moses having their 
application to Christ as revealed in the New Testa- 
ment. It is a glorious study; an interesting study; 
a study that may well occupy a lifetime. 

I say to you, in closing, with all humility, that no 
man can have a clear, vivid grasp and understand- 
ing of the gospel of Jesus Christ who has not been 
a student of the types of Moses. Moses wrote of 
him. In the Old Testament Jesus Christ is taken 
to pieces, as it were, that you may look at each 
part and see the perfection of each part, and in the 
New Testament the pieces are put together again 
and we see the complete Christ. The intelligent 
believer will go to the types of Moses and see Christ 
there, see every part laid out in these types; he 
comes to the New Testament and discovers Jesus 
the sum and substance of all. So the typical study 
of the Bible is exceedingly important. 

I trust that we may go from here realizing that 
this Bible is for a lifetime study, and that thereby 
the Spirit of God will work in us personal puri- 
fication. Bible study will help us in our ministry 
and in our homes. God grant these fragmentary 
suggestions may prove of practical value to you, 
dear pastors, and to all of you, Christian friends; 
that the study of Holy Scripture may make you 
wise and loving and patient and fruitful to the 
praise of His grace. Amen. 




V. 

THE MANIFOLD GOSPEL. 

DO not say "gospels," but "gospel," 
the one gospel, though it is many-sided. 
There are many facets to this diamond. 
In these meetings we wish to develop 
some feature of God's word which will furnish you 
material for your profit and study and further in- 
vestigation of the precious Scriptures. 

Now, turn with me to the 55th chapter of Isaiah, 
vs. 1, 2. Notice four things ; water, wine, milk, 
bread. These are emblems or symbols of the 
gospel of our salvation. Somebody has rightly 
said that the Holy Spirit has ransacked all creation 
to find fitting emblems and symbols with which to 
suitably portray the L,ord Jesus and set forth His 
finished work of redemption. Everything in nature 
is laid under tribute by the Spirit of God for this 
purpose. He enters the animal creation and takes 
the lion and the lamb, and into the vegetable king- 
dom and selects the rose and the lily, and into the 
mineral kingdom to find gold and silver and 
precious stones, to illustrate, to shadow forth, to 
represent, and to portray the I^ord Jesus. The 
Spirit of God hides Himself; He shall not speak 

(95) 



q6 Spiritual Life. 

of Himself, in order that He might reveal Jesus 
Christ. He testifies of Him. But we need to have 
an intimate acquaintance with the modes and 
methods and purposes of the Spirit in order to be 
prepared for His revelation of Jesus Christ to us. 

So the Spirit of God takes various emblems and 
symbols to set forth the gospel of salvation in its 
manifold character. If any of you, brethren, wish 
to have a little address and you have been too busy 
all day to prepare it, you could take these four 
things and talk on them beautifully and profitably. 

Water is the symbol of life; so the best thing we 
have is the living water. What a glorious repre- 
sentation of the gospel that is! Then wine in 
Scripture is the emblem of joy, "wine tliatmaketh 
glad the heart of man. ' ' Wine produces an ecstasy 
in man's physical organization, and so it is the 
emblem of the gospel which produces a purer 
ecstasy and a greater enjoyment. Wine illustrates 
the joy of the gospel. Then milk. You know 
that milk is spoken of in Peter as the source of 
growth: "As new-born babes desire the unadul- 
terated milk of the word, that you may grow 
thereby unto salvation. ' ' And bread is that which 
gives strength. So we have life, joy, growth and 
strength, features of spiritual life symbolized in this 
manner. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all of this; 
the gospel brings life to the sinner, and the gospel 
brings joy to the heart, and the gospel develops 



The Manifold Gospel. 97 

growth in the convert, and the gospel has in it 
also the nourishing qualities, the nutritive elements 
which make the believer strong in the L,ord and in 
the power of His might. 

I want that you should now turn to Gal. i. 8, 9, 
in order that we may study this subject of the mani- 
fold gospel. The Revised Version reads, ( ' Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you 
any gospel other than that which we preached unto 
you. " It is a very serious thing to preach the gospel, 
to profess to be a preacher of the gospel ; it is a very 
serious thing to hear the gospel ; it carries with it 
very great responsibility. Take heed, therefore, how 
ye hear, and take heed, therefore, what ye hear. Now 
the question will naturally arise in the mind, What 
is the gospel ? If there is an anathema pronounced 
against those who preach any gospel other than 
that which Paul preached, what is the gospel ? In 
Gal. i. 4, we have the very substance of the gospel : 
"Who gave himself for our sins, that he might 
deliver us from this present evil world, according 
to the will of God and our Father. ' ' Now that is 
the very essence of the gospel, the substitutionary 
work of Jesus Christ for the sinner ; and if any man 
preach any other gospel than this, any speculation, 
any philosophy or any theory other than this, he 
comes under the terrible anathema, u let him be 
accursed. ' } 

What is the gospel ? What is its definition ? 
7 



98 Spiritual Life. 

We have a scriptural answer. We turn to the 
second chapter of Luke and there we find the true 
scriptural definition from the 10th verse: u Fear 
not." Man is afraid of God because he does not 
understand God; man, because he is a sinner, 
knowing that God is holy, trembles before him. 
* ( Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy." What are the good tidings? "For 
unto you is born this day in the city of David " a 
helper ? no ; a reformer ? no ; a teacher ? no ; u a 
Saviour which is Christ the L,ord. ' ' Now do not 
be startled if I say to you that Jesus Christ did not 
come into this world to help the sinner. He did 
not come to help, He came to save. We have no 
power in ourselves, we are helpless, and He has 
come not as a helper, but as a Saviour. ' ( And 
this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe 
wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a 
manger. And suddenly there was with the angel 
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and 
saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth 
peace, good- will toward men. ' ' Even angels will 
have their hallelujahs when they hear this gospel 
announced. Mr. Spurgeon said one time that 
when he got to heaven, where he is now, although 
there would be no sinners there, he felt that he 
must stand on the corners of the streets of the New 
Jerusalem and preach to the angels, to tell them 
about this gospel, what a glorious thing it is. 



The Manifold Gospel. 99 

How very glad every angel in heaven must be to 
know that as God looked down upon this lost 
world, he had such love for man as to send his 
only begotten Son, born of a woman, the Saviour, 
Jesus Christ our Lord. This was their chant: 
* * Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good-will to men." 

This, then, is the meaning of the word gospel ; 
"glad tidings." And what are these tidings? 
I want you to take the word gospel and trace it 
through the New Testament when most convenient. 
There are many ways of studying the Bible, but 
this is one very good way. You select the word 
gospel: it is found very frequently in the New 
Testament; get your concordance and trace it 
throughout. Take note-book and pencil and write 
down every verse where you find the word; then 
when you complete your list of texts, take your 
notes and your Bible, and read carefully not only the 
passage where the word is found, but all its sur- 
roundings. Try to understand what is meant by 
the word in that particular passage, and you will 
find very soon that your mind will be enriched and 
your soul comforted, and you will have gained a 
goodly store of Bible knowledge. When I was a 
boy I was very fond of rock candy. One thing 
about the candy always puzzled me; the smallest 
piece would always have a little string in it, and 
the longer pieces would have a string in them. 



V 



ioo Spiritual Life. 

Whatever amount I bought I always found a string 
through it. When I inquired I learned that they 
could not make the candy without that string on 
which they crystallized the sugar. Now you may 
take a word like the word gospel for the string and 
find precious teaching connected with it. I shall 
take that word at this time and call your attention 
to it in a few places. 

Romans i. i. " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, 
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel 
of God." I want you to notice that every text I 
read will have a different expression connected with 
the word gospel. We start with this statement: 
( ( The gospel of God. ' ' That is, the gospel is of 
God, the gospel is from God, it concerns God and 
it comes from God to men. Every river in the 
world has its source ; men may be a long time try- 
ing to find the source of the Nile, but it has its 
source. So when you trace the gospel you find its 
source in the very heart of God. God planned this 
whole scheme of redemption. It was no after- 
thought; before even man fell He had the idea of 
redemption in His own mind; the gospel is not, 
therefore, a human scheme of redemption, but it is 
the divine plan for the salvation of the race. The 
gospel reveals God; makes Him known to us. 
Nature also makes Him known, but not in His 
moral character; the man who studies nature will 
have some idea of His existence and power and 



The Manifold Gospel 101 

wisdom and greatness and so on, but the gospel 
discovers to us the moral nature of God. Nature 
tells us nothing about His love for mankind, but 
the gospel gives us the full revelation of His char- 
acter, of His work, of His nature; so we come to 
know Him ; ( ' and this is life eternal that they may 
know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ 
whom Thou hast sent. ' ' Then there is life in a full 
knowledge of God in the gospel. He reveals Him- 
self to us in that gospel, and by that revelation we 
are saved; saved because we come to know Him; 
to know that "God is love," and "we love Him 
because He first loved us." 

Turn to Acts xx. 24. c ' But none of these things « 
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, 
so that I might finish my course with joy, and the 
ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, 
to testify the gospel of the grace of God." You 
find another expression here. We read in that re- 
markable sermon which Paul preached to the elders 
atEphesus: "None of these things move me." 
How different it is with us modern evangelists! 
Unless we ride in a Pullman and have the best of 
everything we think we are hardly dealt with; 
and unless we have applause where we go, we are 
discouraged. It was the gospel of God in the 1st 
chapter of Romans, now it is the " gospel of the 
grace of God. ' ' If you were to ask me to explain 
grace, I should have to decline; if you were to ask 



102 Spiritual Life. 

me to lecture on the rainbow, I should have to be 
silent. You cannot explain grace, although you 
may have some little conception of it. The best 
definition I ever heard of grace was from a little 
ragged boy in a mission school. The question was 
asked, " What is grace ?" And the answer came, 
11 Please, sir, it is getting everything for nothing." 
Such really is the grace of God. The gospel says 
that we have nothing to give, and God gives us 
everything; we have no price in our hand, no 
merit in ourselves, but God out of His boundless 
goodness, out of His own infinite mercy, gives to us 
salvation full and free. The gospel is the gospel 
of the grace of God. In the 7th chapter of L,uke 
you will find a beautiful and touching illustration 
of Grace. There was a good man, a centurion, 
very patriotic, a lover of his country, and a lover 
of the Jews ; he built them a synagogue and he 
loved their nation. He had a sick servant, and he 
was very solicitous about that servant, and the 
Jewish people sympathized with him. They went 
to Jesus and said, ' ' We want you to come and heal 
this centurion's servant, for he is worthy for whom 
you should do this, for he built us a synagogue and 
he loves our nation." Now the plea of the Jews 
with Jesus that he might heal the centurion's ser- 
vant was based on the ground of the man's per- 
sonal worthiness. When the centurion heard it 
he was mortified, and sent his servant to Jesus with 



The Manifold Gospel. 103 

this message, ' ' Lord, do not trouble yourself to 
come to me nor to come under my roof; for / am 
not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. 
Say the word only and my servant shall be healed. ' ' 
Jesus marveled, and turning around said, ( ' I 
have not found so great faith, no not in Israel." 
Not among the Jewish people did Jesus find such a 
believer, but here is a Gentile who has so much 
faith that he describes himself as unworthy, and he 
does not base any plea on his own merit, but prays 
the Saviour to heal his servant in grace. Now if we yS 
have one thought of merit regarding ourselves, it 
is the fly that spoils the ointment; it spoils grace. 
If you think there is any spot good in you from 
scalp to heel, you do not understand grace; but 
when you know there is not a single good moral 
spot in you, and that God in His infinite grace 
stoops down to save you for nothing, then you will 
understand something about grace. The gospel is 
the gospel of the grace of God. It humbles man, 
it shows him his own lack of merit, then it takes 
him up in its arms, that in the " ages to come He 
might show forth the exceeding riches of His 
grace." Eph. ii. 8. u For by grace are ye saved 
through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift 
of God." Grace and merit are opposite; grace and 
works are opposite, and you cannot mingle the 
two ; you cannot be saved partly by grace and 
partly by works. The gospel is the gospel of the 



io4 Spiritual Life, 

grace of God; it is the announcement of salvation, 
proclaiming to man eternal life as the gift of God. 
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Iyord. ' ' Now you know what a gift is. 
When God gives you salvation He is not asking 
anything of you, and the sinner who is in the atti- 
tude of a recipient is the one whom God will bless 
first. Oh, blessed gospel of the grace of God! 

Now we turn to Romans i. 16. " For I am not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; 
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ' ' Here the 
expression is ' ' the gospel of Christ. ' ' In Rom. i. 
we have iheorig-m of the gospel, the gospel of God; 
in Acts xx. we have the character of the gospel. 
Now in Rom. i. 16, we have the subject of the 
gospel ; the gospel of Christ. He is the one whom 
this great gospel reveals. Turn for a moment to 
i Cor. xv. 1-4 and you will understand this ex- 
pression, the gospel of Christ. The gospel is con- 
cerning the Son of God; it tells of His mission to 
earth, it tells us of His death and triumphant resur- 
rection. Here are the pillars upon which man's 
redemption rests. Christ died for my sins, accord- 
ing to the Scriptures, He was buried; it was no sham 
death, no faint, no swooning; He was buried as a 
dead man, but He rose again according to the Scrip- 
tures, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 
are the pillars upon which man's salvation rests se- 



The Manifold Gospel. 105 

cure. If these pillars can be pulled to pieces there is 
no salvation for the human race. But they are stand- 
ing to-day as they have ever stood. So the gospel 
is an announcement concerning Jesus Christ, espe- 
cially this, that He died for our sins, and rose again 
from the dead. Therefore the apostles went every- 
where preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And 
in the Epistle to the Romans, in that one letter, you 
see how much the apostle thought of Christ; Christ 
was the centre of his theology; Christ was the sub- 
stance of his teaching, for thirty times in that 
epistle he mentions the name of Christ. Paul had 
a real sense of salvation through Christ, when he 
talked about Christ, and when he preached salva- 
tion he could not preach it apart from Christ. 
So it is Christ all through, and the gospel is the 
gospel of Christ. 

Then as to the objec t of the gospel in the fourth V- 
place, we turn to Bph. i. 13. u In whom ye also 
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the 
gospel of your salvation : in whom also, after that 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise." The object of the gospel then is 
salvation. The gospel is a verbal message, a 
declaration concerning Jesus Christ, and the mani- 
festation of the grace of God to men. Now, salva- 
tion is a very comprehensive term; we need to 
examine that a little. What is salvation ? Salva- 
tion is deliverance. And salvation is a good deal 



106 Spiritual Life. 

more than we ordinarily think, perhaps. If, for 
instance, a man is brought before the court here in 
this State and is adjudged guilty; if that man is 
a thief and the witnesses prove his crime against 
him, and the jury return a verdict of "guilty," if 
the judge has the right, the prerogative, the power 
to release that man from the penalty of the law; if 
he has the privilege to pardon the man, he pro- 
nounces pardon upon him, he exercises mercy, he 
says to the thief, ' ' You have been convicted, but 
now it is my prerogative to pardon you ; you can go 
out of this place free. ' ' He is saved from what ? 
From the penalty of his transgression; he is saved 
from the punishment of the law which he trans- 
gressed. But after he goes out he steals again; 
he has still all his thievish propensities and is there- 
fore only partly saved. But, if the judge could in 
some way inoculate that man with his own upright 
principles ; if he could say, ' ' My friend, you have 
been a thief all your life, and it is your propensity 
to steal; I not only remit the penalty of the law, 
but I implant in you my upright nature." Then 
the thief going out without his thievish propensities, 
and with all the virtues of the judge in him, he is 
saved from the penalty of his crime and he is saved 
from the habit of thieving. In like manner the 
Lord came to save us, not only from punishment 
due to us as transgressors, but also by the imparta- 
tion of His own nature. * ' If any man be in Christ, 



The Manifold Gospel. 107 

he is a new creation; old things are passed away, 
behold, all things have become new. ' ' If Brother 
Fife went around the streets drunken and gambling 
as formerly and still said, ' ' I am saved from my 
sins," none of you would come to hear him. But 
when you see the change in the man, that old habits 
are overcome and old vices given up, and the 
brother's life is now bent in the right direction, you 
see that salvation is a broad, comprehensive term. 
Saved from sins and saved from sinning. 

A great many are hoping to get to heaven, who 
are never saved from their habits. Their prayer is 
u Iyord, I would like to be saved from hell, but 
please let me drink and gamble here below." 
Well, not much, sir, not much shall that prayer be 
answered. 

I preached the other night, and made the gospel 
just as difficult as I could for the sinner. I showed 
him all that he would have to encounter, I tried to 
show him all the difficulties before him; and I 
said, "Now, I have made the gospel so difficult 
that if you come to Jesus Christ you must turn your 
back upon questionable things; in the face of this 
difficult gospel, who is going to come out on the 
Lord's side ? " It requires courage, but we have to 
accept the fact that the gospel carries with it cer- 
tain responsibilities which a man cannot set aside 
when he professes faith in Jesus Christ. 

But though saved from the habit of my past life, 



108 Spiritual Life. 

I am not yet fully saved, because I am subject to 
sickness and disease; I have a body subject to death 
and if the L,ord Jesus should tarry, I shall be car- 
ried to the grave. But He has promised to redeem 
that body when He comes, and the graves will then 
open, and from all the cemeteries will come God's 
people in their glorified bodies; they shall then be 
saved from all the consequences of sin. 

So there are a great many texts which apparently 
do not harmonize, because one class of texts speak 
of salvation from the penalty of sin, another class 
of texts speak of salvation from the power of sin, 
and another of salvation from its final consequences. 

v L,et me give you a sample : we read in 2 Timothy 
ii. 9, that we are saved ; that is absolute, that is 
positive ; we are saved. We read in Phil. ii. 12, 13, 

i/ "Work out your own salvation, ... for it is God 
that worketh in you." He works in us and we work 
out what He works in. When in Canada preaching, 
the cold was very severe; and while driving across 

/ the country my hands would get very cold; so I 
said to my wife one day, " My hands become so 
cold I can not hold the lines." "Well," she said, 
4 ' I will knit you a pair of woolen mittens. " u But, ' ' 
she added, "you have to provide me with the 
material." She worked them out after I bought 
the material and put it in her possession. So God 
puts the material of salvation into us by the impar- 
tation of His Spirit; then says, "Go, work out 



The Manifold Gospel. 109 

your own salvation ; ' ' salvation from self, salvation 
from habit, salvation from the flesh. My friends, 
that is the second aspect of salvation. Then read 
Romans viii. 24. "For we are saved by hope: 
but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man 
seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? " A great many 
people take comfort in that text, and say they hope 
to be saved because the Bible says we are saved 
by hope. What is this salvation ? The redemp- 
tion of the body. Therefore we are expecting the 
consummation of our salvation as a hope. By the 
exercise of memory we look back, we remember 
what Jesus has done; by the exercise of hope we 
look forward: we have memory and hope, by which 
the Christian soul is kept poised and balanced, like 
the traditional cofiin of Mohammed. 

Again observe Eph. vi. 15. "And your feet 
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." T 
This is the result of the gospel, peace. The gos- 
pel of peace. It is a curious style in telling a man 
to prepare for war, to talk about peace. Paul talks 
about the helmet and the breast-plate and then 
shoes of peace. Now, the meaning is this : No 
Christian is ready to fight until he stands on peace; 
if he has a peaceful understanding with God ; peace 
with God, then he is able to fight against the enemy ; 
but if we have not peace with God, we have no 
courage to fight. So we stand like the Roman and 
Greek soldiers who with spiked sandals gripped the 



no Spiritual Life. 

earth; they had a good understanding, because the 
iron spikes held them up and they were able to 
fight. So the gospel is the gospel of peace; we 
have peace with God through our L,ord Jesus Christ. 
A great many do not discriminate between hav- 
ing peace and feeling peace, and they are wrecked 
right along those rocks; a kind of sunken bar and 
a very dangerous place. We want to be happy 
and we try to work ourselves into happiness, then 
think we are converted. There may be something 
of emotion in a real conversion, I grant you, but 
I do not depend on feelings for my salvation; these 
are but the consequences of salvation. Now what 
is peace? I never like, whether I am North or South, 
to refer to the late war, first of all because I had 
nothing to do with it; I was on the other side of 
the water, but I used to read the papers about the 
North and the South. The good time came when 
peace was declared between the two parties. There 
is a man hiding down here in the swamps, or woods 
and I come up and say, " My friend, what is the 
matter?" "Well, sir, my two sons were killed in 
the war, and I have a sick wife at home, and I am 
afraid they will draft me. ' * He is hiding in fear ; 
but I tell him that the war is all over, that the 
strife is ended. Now if he believes that message, 
immediately he has peace in his heart; if he does 
not believe the message, he is still in terror. God 
has been at war with this world on account of sin; 



The Manifold Gospel. in 

Jesus Christ came and made peace; and if we be- 
lieve that, we enter into peace with God. Peace 
is not feeling, but fact; peace with God, peace 
with my Father. We are not afraid, we have peace. 
If we have the feeling of peace afterwards, it is 
all right; there are some people who never can 
have feelings and if they try to work themselves 
into feeling, they do not succeed. You ask me if 
I always feel happy. No, I do not ; it is impossible, 
no man can control his feelings. When I am out 
on the Atlantic, for instance, about two days from 
shore, I am anything but happy; and if you should 
approach and say, ' ' How do you feel ?' ' I would 
be apt to say, * ' Get you gone ; hie to your den ; 
let me alone. ' ' But if you were to say, ' ' Have 
you peace with God?" I would say u yes, al- 
though old Neptune is demanding tribute, I 
have peace with God. ' ' The gospel is the gospel 
of peace. So that when we by faith enter into the 
enjoyment of peace with God, I do not care how 
much feeling we may have afterwards. 

My opinion is this: I believe that people should 
be natural; if anybody puts a straight jacket on 
you, pull it off and simply be yourself, but do not 
make the mistake that happy feelings constitute 
the peace of the gospel. God is no more at war 
with me, I am reconciled to Him; I have peace 
with God through Jesus Christ, my L,ord. So 
peace is the result of the gospel. 



f 



112 Spiritual Life. ■ 

In the last place, i Tim. i. n. " According to 
trie glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was 
committed to my trust. n Or as it properly reads, 
"According to the gospel of the glory of the 
blessed God." This, then, is the ultimate design 
of the gospel, that God may be glorified. I am 
afraid, brethren, we do not keep that enough in 
view, the glory of God in the gospel. Glory is 
the manifestation of all His excellencies, the mani- 
festation of all His attributes ; He shall be glorified 
in the results of the gospel. The word "blessed " 
as all scholars know, means ' l happy. ' ' Therefore 
it reads in this way, ' ' according to the gospel of 
the glory of the happy God." God is immeasur- 
ably happy in Himself, like these great lakes that 
become so full, they must have outlets, so the St. 
Lawrences and the Niagaras are formed by the 
overflow of the lakes. God is so supremely happy 
in Himself, there must be an outlet; that outlet 
comes in the form of the gospel to our race. 

So we have, dear friends, the gospel beginning 
with God and ending with God, the gospel of God 
and the gospel of the glory of God. We have the 
gospel of God as to its origin, and the gospel of 
the grace of God as to its character, and the gos- 
pel of Christ as to its subject, and the gospel of 
your salvation as to its object, and the gospel of 
peace as to its result, and the gospel of the glory 
of God as to its design. There is besides the 



The Manifold Gospel. 113 

gospel of the kingdom, and the everlasting gos- 
pel, but I think I have said enough to induce study 
and give you a little clew in this direction. It is 
a great thing to have a consistent view and a har- 
monized view of these different texts which exalt 
the gospel of our I^ord Jesus Christ. 
8 



VI. 



CONSECRATED VESSELS. 




j UT in a great house there are not only 
vessels of gold and of silver, but also of 
wood and of earth; and some to honor 

and some to dishonor. If a man therefore 



purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto 
honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, 
and prepared unto every good work. ' ' (2 Tim. ii. 
20, 21.) 

This great house is the church. Israel, nation- 
ally, was the house of Moses, though he was but a 
servant in it. The church is the house of Christ, 
of which He is Foundation, Builder and Master. 
(Heb. iii. 4-6; Matt. xvi. 18; 1 Cor. iii. 2.) The 
Church is "a spiritual house, ' ' the temple wherein 
God dwelleth. (1 Peter ii. 5; Bph. ii. 19-22; 1 
Cor. iii. 16, 17.) It is the house of God, the pillar 
and ground of the truth. (1 Tim. iii. 15.) This 
is the house where Truth seeks rest, and for whom 
all the inhabitants should have proper and jealous 
regard. But, alas! it is not always so. Hyme- 
nseus and Philetus opposed the truth in denying a 
future literal resurrection. They overthrew the 
faith of some in teaching that it was past already. 

("4) 



Consea r ated Vessels. 115 

This fatal error has been presented in many forms 
for nineteen centuries, and the hope of the fathers 
regarding the resurrection of the body, for which 
Paul contended before kings, has been in great 
measure eliminated from our modern theology. 
Truth corrupted soon led to corrupt practices. 
With the denial of truth came the fading away of 
morals, hence the faithful admonition in the above 
passage. 

/. Consider the vessels. 

The vessels in the great house embrace the minis- 
try of the church. Some are ' ' gold ' ' and ' ' sil- 
ver ' ' in the preciousness of gift, natural and ac- 
quired, and in opportunity for wider service. 

Others of "wood" and "earth," though of 
coarser material, are not necessarily restricted in 
usefulness. In domestic use, indeed, the more or- 
dinary vessels are the most needful. Not always 
are vessels of ' ' gold ' ' honorable, nor ' ' earthen ' , 
vessels dishonorable. The Master of the house 
seeks honor from all; yet it is of frequent occur- 
rence in the assembly of God, that members of 
culture, position, and wealth — ' ' vessels of gold " — 
are to dishonor, being defiled. Intellectual specu- 
lation in holy things are "lusts of the mind," 
which lead to denial and perversion of the truth, 
and in being seduced from the written word 
through "carnal reasonings" such, thus tempted, 
become ' ' vain in their imaginations, ' ' and their 



n6 Spiritual Life. 

foolish heart being darkened, are set aside as unfit 
for the Master's use. 

Again, it is an undoubted fact that persons of 
meagre gift, limited education, and restricted ad- 
vantages — vessels of " wood " and " earth " — have 
proved a perpetual benediction, carrying about 
within them the water of life to refresh and com- 
fort and save a multitude — "vessels unto honor. " 

Does God, then, discount human learning, and 
put a premium on ignorance ? No, in no wise. 
But He has frequently demonstrated that He can 
accomplish His great designs without the wisdom 
of men. ' ' For the foolishness of God is wiser than 
men; and the weakness of God is stronger than 
men." (i Cor. i. 25-29.) Whether of gold or earth, 
the c ' vessel ' ' is but a vessel; another shapes it, 
prepares it, fills it, makes use of it. There are, 
however, conditions to be observed. The evil 
which defiles and dishonors must be cast out as a 
preparatory process for service. Hence, " if a man 
PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE he shall be a vessel 
unto honor. ' ' Not that a vessel of. ' ( gold " or u sil- 
ver ' ' must withdraw itself from one of ' ( wood ' ' or 
"earth," but that each vessel rid itself of defiling 
elements which dishonor the Son of God. 

The context shows that the false teaching of 
verse 1 8 is connected with the c c profane and vain 
babblings" of verse 16, which eat as a gangrene 
into the vitals of spiritual life. The "youthful 



Consecrated Vessels. 117 

lusts" of verse 22, and the " foolish and unlearned 
questions" of verse 23, show that truth neglected 
or perverted inevitably leads to laxity of morals. 
For when truth is dislodged from the mind by 
' l lusts, " u evil communications, ' ' which ' ' corrupt 
good manners, ' ' find a ready entrance. 

A vessel of gold or of wood may contain impurity, 
and from this the vessel should seek purging. The 
purging enjoined is not an unbrotherly exclusion, 
or withdrawal, but a riddance of false doctrine. 

That discipline should be exercised in the church 
of God is clearly taught elsewhere. But the Scrip- 
ture idea of excision is for the health of the body, 
and the restoration to sound doctrine or morals of 
the excommunicated. We fear that much spiritual 
pride has been engendered by a false view of this 
passage, and an unjust exclusiveness, a false spiritu- 
ality has been the result. 

Leaving, however, the matter of church dis- 
cipline aside, let us further examine the teaching 
of the passage under consideration. " If a man 
purge HIMSELF," brings us immediately to the fact 
of personal responsibility. Separation from sin in 
all its forms is taught throughout the Scriptures. 
There are things which defile a man, and from 
such he should withdraw himself. ' ( Let us 
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
spirit;" "but now ye also put off all these;" "put 
off the old man with his deeds ;" u put off the works 



n8 Spiritual Life. 

of darkness. " Such exhortations should come 
home very closely to every Christian who has a 
realization of his individual relation to God, before 
whom he seeks to walk. And by such Scriptures 
the Spirit of God is ever reminding us, that as we 
are holy in God's eternal purpose, we should also 
be holy in immediate experience and practice. The 
leper, ceremonially cleansed by the priest, was next 
commanded to cleanse himself. (L,ev. xiv. i-io.) 
The priest applied the blood, he must apply the 
water. In our solicitude to defend the gospel of 
grace from Arminian legalism, we must jealously 
guard against the rebound to the gospel of Antino- 
mian license and presumptuous fatalism. The 
same Spirit who gives assurance of complete salva- 
tion through the efficacy of the blood, urges the 
saved believer to self-judgment and self-cleansing 
through the efficacy of the word. It is well to 
hold the balance of truth, and perceive the harmony 
between being kept and keeping ourselves, being 
purged and purging ourselves, being washed and 
washing ourselves. 

Nor are we left without a motive in this essen- 
tial work. u If a man purge himself from these, 
he shall be A VKSSKL unto honor." In verse 15 
Paul enjoins Timothy to study as a workman under 
the eye of God and for God's approval. For u not 
he who commendeth himself is approved, but whom 
the L,ord commendeth. ' ' Such study deepens faith 



Consecrated Vessels. 119 

and checks our desire after flattery. He who seeks 
the praise of men more than the praise of God, who 
weighs every question of service in the scales of 
human opinion, cannot be a vessel ' ' unto honour. ' ' 
1 ' For if I yet please men, I should not be the ser- 
vant of Christ, ' ' was the experience of one whose 
brief but comprehensive creed was the true ex- 
pression of a consecrated life — "Whose I am, and 
whom I serve " How true are our Lord's words, 
u How can ye believe, which receive honor one of 
another?" Such self-seeking must surely wound 
and weaken our faith. 

II. Sanctified vessels. 

* * If a man therefore purge himself from these, 
he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and 
meet for the Master's use. " We cannot charge the 
Holy Spirit with tautology; every word is of mo- 
ment He attaches meaning to ' ' purge ' ' and 
"honor;" so also to "sanctified," "meet," and 
' ( prepared. ' ' 

"Sanctified" is an Old Testament word. It 
means, primarily, "separated." And this idea is 
attached to it also in the New Testament. In the 
memorable prayer of our Lord (John xvii. 17, 19) 
He asked that His disciples might be sanctified. If 
we claim that sanctification means only moral ex- 
cellence, or growth into a holy state, we shall miss 
the Lord's thought and misinterpret the right idea 
of sanctification. In verse 19 He speaks of His 



120 Spiritual Life. 

own self-sanctification, which cannot refer to any 
attainment in holiness or essential purity, which 
might imply lack of holiness in the past. He 
was always ' ' that holy thing ' ' from the earliest 
stage of being; and in growth into manhood he 
never became holier in person or character. Not 
only did our Iyord sanctify Himself, but He acknowl- 
edges the Father as the sanctifier : ' ' Say ye of Him, 
whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the 
world, Thou blasphemest ?" (John x. 36.) Keep- 
ing the primary idea of sanctification still in mind, 
how full of meaning are the words of Jesus! The 
Father sent Him; gladly He came to do His will, 
separating Himself to His mission with unfaltering 
devotion, until at the close of life He could say, in 
fullest measure, u I have finished the work thou 
gavest me to do. ' ' As our Lord thus set Himself 
apart to the perfect fulfilment of the Father's will, 
so He prays that His disciples might likewise be 
truly sanctified. 

Every vessel in God's house is formed for its own 
unique purpose; or, to change the figure, every 
member of the mystical body has its own use. 
Every Christian, by the election of the Father, by 
the redemption of Christ, and by the indwelling of 
the Spirit, is set apart for salvation and service. 
Consecration is the recognition of this vital truth in 
personal life, and the faithful, unswerving devotion 
of the believer to fulfil the purpose of God concern- 



Consecrated Vessels. 121 

ing him. Therefore, as a vessel, each one should 
earnestly endeavor to abide in his own place, or, as 
a member of the body, to fulfil his own office, and 
throughout the whole of life be fully devoted to his 
calling and ministry in the house of God. Every 
piece of furniture in the tabernacle and temple 
had its own peculiar ministry: the brazen altar 
could not serve for the laver, nor the candlestick 
take the place of the ark. Nor as members of the 
body can the hand say to the foot, ' c I have no need 
of thee;" nor the eye seek to perform, in addition 
to its own, the functions of the ear. Therefore 
confusion arises in the house of God when we not 
only endeavor to fill offices for which we are not 
qualified by nature or grace, but also when ignoring 
other vessels chosen of God for their own particular 
service. ' ' Evangelists ' ' should not decry ■ ' pas- 
tors," nor " pastors" ignore u evangelists;" nor 
should either despise ' ' governments ' ' and ' c helps. ' ' 
The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every 
man to profit withal, but to every man is appointed 
his own special work. (Eph. 4. 8-12.) 

And here let me offer a word of caution. This 
separation to our own peculiar work does not em- 
brace all of sanctification. We may, indeed, stand 
in our proper place in the church, and not be in a 
right attitude of soul before God. In the conse- 
cration of the Nazarite (Num. vi.), separation was 
unto the Lord. Failure in this particular was fail- 



122 Spiritual Life. 

ure in every department of separation. Refusing 
wine, or avoiding a dead body, may be done in a 
pharisaic spirit, or in monkish piety. But true 
separation to the L,ord necessarily withdrew the 
Nazarite from the emblems of worldly pleasure 
and moral death. Practically, then, it is through 
the indwelling power of the Spirit that we are 
separated in aim, in heart, in service to the Lord, 
and, consequently, from everything antagonistic 
to His holiness and truth. Thus do we become 
vessels unto honor, "sanctified" for the Master's 
use. 

III. Vessels made meet. 

" Sanctified," but not yet "meet." Let us note 
this other word. In the pottery the potter is sov- 
ereign. He moulds and forms as he wills. He 
fashions each vessel for its own use — bowls, 
pitchers, cups, vases. Yet are they not free from 
un cleanness, the dust of the factory or store ever 
falling upon and defiling them. A cleansing pro- 
cess is therefore needful to fit the vessel for use. 
Likewise, notwithstanding our separation to God, 
and consequent turning away from evil, we are not 
free from defilement. We breathe an impure at- 
mosphere, and even the unconscious sin, which is 
ever sin to God, must be fully cleansed away before 
we can truly serve in the fellowship of His Son, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In Lev. xi. 32, the law of ceremonies declared a 



Co7tsecrated Vessels. 123 

vessel unclean if touched by any creeping thing. 
"And upon whatsoever any of them, when they 
are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it 
be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, 
whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, 
it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean 
until the even : so it shall be cleansed. ' ' Not the 
outside of the cup and platter only, but the inside 
also must be cleansed. Vessels of gold or of wood, 
of silver or of earth, need the inward purification 
of the Spirit, who washes by the word, till we are 
clean every whit. ' ' Holiness becometh thine 
house, O Lord, for ever." The Christian believer, 
separated to his ministry, purged from sin with 
atoning blood, and cleansed in the laver of truth, 
becomes a vessel unto honor "meet for the Mas- 
ter's use." 

Vessels uncovered in a Jewish tent became de- 
filed when a person died. (Num. xix. 14, 15.) 
The presence of death, apart from any action of 
the vessels, rendered them ceremonially unclean. 
Therefore coverings were made and fastened upon 
them, that they might be held ready for use. 
Blessed be God, purification may become an ex- 
perience, because a fact, and provision is made 
through His infinite grace, to preserve in holiness 
those who are called and chosen and faithful. 

" I am an empty vessel ! scarce one thought 
Or look of love to Thee I've ever brought ; 



124 Spiritual Life. 

Yet I may come, and come again, to Thee 
With this, the contrite sinner's truthful plea, 
' Thou lovest me. ' ' ' 

IV. Prepared vessels. 

"Prepared unto every good work." What is 
this preparation ? In other words, if the vessel is 
set apart and purified, is it not prepared ? Truly, 
it is ready for use, but not as yet prepared for 
practical service. 

When visiting a pottery, I observed the various 
processes through which the vessel passed till com- 
pleted. Having made a purchase, the vessel was 
ready for usefulness in the home, but must needs 
be prepared for its special work through being filled. 
While empty, though cleansed, it could not serve 
its purpose nor fulfil its mission. And hereby the 
lesson was enforced upon me, that we fail in recog- 
nizing the Sovereign Potter's design when we de- 
sire only an abiding emptiness. It is of paramount 
importance that self should be thrust out, and kept 
out, but the filling up with the divine material is 
an absolute essential. 

"None of self, but all of Thee." 

A filled vessel, then, is a vessel ( ' prepared for 
every good work." Nor is consecration & fact in 
personal experience, until the emptying of every 
defiling element becomes insured by the filling up 
out of the fulness that is in Christ. This essential 
feature of consecration was typified by the priest's 



Consecrated Vessels. 125 

presentation of sacrifice and incense, which filled 
his hands. When Moses was ordained of God to 
consecrate the priesthood, one part of that act was 
in filling their hands, as symbolic of the powers 
and ministry of the office with which they were 
invested. (Exod. xxviii. 41; xxix. 9, margin.) 

So, then, the consecration of the priests was com- 
pleted by the offering up of gifts unto Jehovah. 
And we must insist on this, that while the believer is 
said to consecrate himself by a hearty submission to 
Christ, yet, truly, consecration is the action of the 
great high Priest upon him in separating, cleansing, 
and filling that believing soul with the Spirit of 
purity and of power. Nor is this consecration an 
undefined and ecstatic emotion, called by some c 'full 
salvation," an expression unscriptural in that ap- 
plication of it. Full salvation will not be an ac- 
complished result until the coming of the Lord, 
when this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
and the corruptible body sleeping in death be 
crowned with incorruptible life. Not until we are 
like the Son of God, when glorified together with 
Him, shall we have attained unto complete salva- 
tion, to be revealed in the hour of His second ad- 
vent. Blessed be God ; we have the earnest of that 
salvation now, in His life communicated to us, and 
by the Spirit dwelling in us. (John v. 24; 1 Cor. 
vi. 19, 20.) 

In Romans xv. 13, Paul prayed thus for the 



126 Spiritual Life. 

saints : ' ' Now may the God of hope fill you with 
all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound 
in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. ' ' 
The Holy Spirit makes the hope real to the in- 
structed heart, and its anticipations fill us with joy 
and peace in believing. Joy and peace — the peace 
that floweth as a river — the result of quietness and 
assurance; and joy, like the babbling brook fed by 
unseen sources, welling up within, giving strength 
for labor, and gladness in service. The fulness 
of joy and peace is our birthright privilege. "Being 
justified by faith, we have peace with God .... 
And not only so, but we also joy in God, through 
our Ivord Jesus Christ." These are, however, but 
results in themselves which flow from an acquaint- 
ance with the truth of the gospel and faith in the 
Son of God. 

In Bph. v. 1 8 we have a New Testament com- 
mand, " Be ye filled with the Spirit." The conse- 
cration of the believer is not possible apart from the 
Holy Spirit. When He comes as an abiding guest, 
and fills every chamber of the heart with His sweet 
influences and gracious illuminations, revealing 
Jesus to the understanding, ennobling our aspira- 
tions and intensifying our love for Christ; when, 
in a word, we are filled with the Spirit, we but en- 
ter upon a New Testament experience denied to 
none of the redeemed. For as in the gospel we 
find * ' whosoever will, let him take, ' ' appealing to 



Consecrated Vessels. 12 7 

sinners outside the door of salvation, so the same 
invitation is given to believers who remain outside 
the door of purchased privileges and unrecognized 
relationships. And how soft should be our tread, 
and how careful our walk, lest in the loud tramp 
of unseeming haste, and the unholy urgency of car- 
nal excitement, we grieve the Divine Guest who 
honors us with His presence, and endues and 
strengthens us by His power. How jealously we 
should guard the holy flame which the sacred oil 
feeds within us, lest by our rude touch or unhal- 
lowed breath we quench the heavenly fire. With- 
out the Divine Spirit filling the soul there can be 
no consecration of the life, such as took place with 
the timid, unlearned fishermen of Galilee, after the 
Holy Ghost had come upon them. 

We may here refer to the consecration of Paul, 
a chosen vessel of the Lord. Whether of earth or 
wood or gold, the glory was not in the vessel's 
material, but in its contents. (Acts 9:15.) " He 
shall bear My name, ' ' was the divine decree. ( ' My 
name! " The name of Dignity and Wealth and 
Power and Forgiveness and Eternal Life filled the 
whole being of this honored apostle, who counted 
all else but dross, that Christ should be magnified 
in his body. For others, too, he prayed ' ' that 
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," and 
that you ' ( may be filled with all the fulness of 
God." (Eph. 3: 19.) Paul could indeed boast "I 



128 Spiritual Life. 

live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me;" therefore 
when jostled by the crowd something of Jesus 
spilled out of this consecrated vessel. 

We cannot well define the indwelling of Christ 
and of the Spirit as distinct facts or experiences. 
Essentially one in the unity of Godhead, yet, offici- 
ally both perform a distinctive work. Have you 
ever looked across the ocean, the eye moving over 
the surface of the water, until unconsciously you 
found yourself looking upon cloudland? The 
drapery of mist having hid the sharp line of divi- 
sion, your eye passed the unseen horizon as if sea 
and sky were one. So with the indwelling Christ 
and the indwelling Spirit. Not that two distinct 
agents have their abode within us, for not cor- 
poreally, but by His Spirit, does Christ dwell in the 
heart. And the Holy Spirit directs the anointed 
eye from Himself to Jesus with such nice adjust- 
ment of vision, that there is no abrupt transition 
from one to the other. Nor by a forced impelling 
are we led through His monitions and admoni- 
tions till we find ourselves gazing up into heaven, 
the scene of our High Priest's intercession at the 
right hand of God; and by faith beholding His 
glory there, we are filled with His presence, revealed 
to our souls through His Spirit which dwelleth in 
us. 

1 ' Oh, fill me, Jesus, Saviour, with Thy love ! 
Lead, lead me to the living fount above ; 



Consecrated Vessels. 129 

Thither may I, in simple faith, draw nigh, 
And never to another fountain fly, 
But unto Thee." 

In order to understand or conceive being filled 
with all the fulness of God, we need a material 
figure, which is furnished us both in the taber- 
nacle and temple. When the tabernacle was set 
up and the temple completed on each occasion 
the glory of God filled the house of God. The 
Shekinah light having its centre of manifestation 
on the mercy-seat, between the Cherubims, expanded 
from thence in such fulness of volume as to fill 
every department of each house. In the Temple 
the priests could not minister because of the glory. 
We have heard of holy men who had such a sense 
of the glory of the L,ord that it became painful to 
them. Sweet pain! Precious suffering! Oh that 
we could thus be * ' sick of love !' ' Does such ex- 
altation, does such fulness, cause the vessel to 
vaunt itself, and treat contemptuously the little 
vessel less favored? No, in no wise. Paul, who 
saw Jesus, King of glory, ' i and heard unspeakable 
words, which it is not lawful for man to utter, ' ' thus 
testified : ' ' But we have this treasure in earthen 
VESSELS, that the excellency of the power may be of 
God, and not of us. ' ' The chiefest apostle called 
himself "the chief of sinners," with a discrimi- 
nating knowledge of the inherent evil of the flesh, 
in which ' ' dwelleth no good thing. ' ' For was not 

9 



130 Spiritual Life, 

this the casting down of self, not by ignoring its 
vital existence, but in condemning its unhallowed 
power? And tins. filling of this chosen vessel with 
the glory which excelleth, caused him as a conse- 
crated believer to write, ' ' No confidence in the 
flesh. " It is indeed a characteristic of consecra- 
tion, to reject self-aid and live in the element of 
grace. The truly believing sinner delights in the 
law of God, and spurns as an insult to Christ the 
intrusion of i ' rites ' ' as either the reservoirs or 
channels of grace. Having begun in the Spirit, 
let us aim at no perfection in the flesh, but sweetly 
chant our hymn of praise to God, and announce 
this as our creed: " Christ is made unto us wisdom, 
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
tion. ' ' Remember, dear friends, such believers only 
are holy and prepared vessels. 

V. Vessels full to overflow. 

But again, a prepared vessel must be filled to the 
brim in order to do the best service. Where there 
is overflow, fresh, constant, vigorous ministry will 
be the result. Klihu said, u I will speak, that I 
may be refreshed " (Job xxxii. 18-22); and David 
declared that his heart was bubbling up with a good 
matter, so that he must speak of those things 
touching the King. (Ps. xlv. 1, 2.) u He that be- 
lieveth on me, ' ' saith Jesus, c ' out of him shall flow 
rivers of living water. ' ' And ' ' thus spake He of 
the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should- 



Consecrated Vessels. 131 

receive. ' ' Receiving is an act of faith ; so then the 
filling is by faith, and the exercise of faith in Christ 
will draw ont of His immeasurable fulness the living 
water, until out of us who believe streams of life 
shall now to refresh earth's desert places. 

In Prov. x. 1 1 we read, ' ( The mouth of a right- 
eous man is a well of life;" and the L,ord Jesus 
promised that the water given by Him would be in 
His people ' ' a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life." (John iv. 14.) Again we find, 
in Prov. xviii. 4, "The words of a man's mouth 
are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as 
a flowing brook. ' ' This can be an experience only 
when Christ, the fountain and wellspring of wis- 
dom, is in us. No philosophy, no study, no attain- 
ment, no creed, can effect the marvelous results 
produced through an indwelling Christ. 

Come then as an empty vessel, O believer, not to 
the broken cisterns of human device, but to the 
fountain-head of life,, and truth, and consecration, 
that you may become as " a watered garden, and 
as a spring of water whose waters fail not. ' ' May 
our constant prayer be, but with no selfish or self- 
righteous end in view, u L,ord, make me c a vessel 
unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's 
use, and prepared unto every good work. ' ' ' 

" O Thou who art of love the living spring, 
My vessel fill." 




VII. 

PAUL'S DEVOTION TO JESUS. 

HAT Christ shall be magnified in my 
body, whether it be by life, or by death; 
for to me to live is Christ." Phil. i. 
20, 21. That Christ may be magni- 
fied in my body, if by life, then life is worth living. 
If by a martyr's death, then so be it. In the first 
place no man conld make that boast who was not 
a converted man. Conversion precedes devotion; 
there can be no true devotion to Jesus Christ before 
conversion. A great many persons try to be de- 
voted to their church and to a religious cause, who 
are not converted and they have a hard time of it; 
they are working on wrong principles. Conversion 
precedes devotion. The reality of Paul's conver- 
sion is proved by the reality of his devotion. 

Paul's conversion was the result of sovereign 
grace. Gal. i. 15. u But when it pleased God, 
who separated me from my mother's womb, and 
called me by his grace. ' ' Every Christian man be- 
lieves in God's sovereign grace. We are one with 
Paul there. Paul's conversion was the result of 
sovereign grace bestowed upon him and ministered 
to him. 

(132) 



Paul 's Devotion to Jesus. 133 

In the second place, it was the result of the reve- 
lation of Jesus Christ to him. 1 Cor. ix. 1. "Am 
I not an apostle ? am I not free ? have I not seen 
Jesus Christ our L,ord ? are not ye my work in the 
Lord ? ' ' He had not been the disciple of Jesus 
during His earthly ministry, but he had a heavenly 
revelation of Him. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul 
outwardly and there was also a revelation of Christ 
in him. Gal. i. 16. u To reveal his Son in me, 
that I might preach him among the heathen; im- 
mediately I conferred not with the flesh and blood. ' ' 
Here, then, is a two-fold revelation; the revelation 
of Christ to Paul which made him an apostle, and 
the revelation of Christ in him. And that brings 
us to this very important text in 1 Tim. i. 15, 16: 
* ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- 
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this 
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ 
might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to 
them which should hereafter believe on him to life 
everlasting. ' ' I am sure every pastor here has found 
that passage to be very perplexing. Jesus Christ 
saved Paul as a pattern; Paul's conversion is a 
model conversion, yet we know there are no con- 
versions in this age exactly patterned after it. 
Where is the difficulty ? Just here. A great many 
people are saying, if they could be converted like 
Paul, they would have assurance. You need not 



134 Spiritual Life. 

expect such a conversion. Paul was converted by 
the direct revelation of Jesus Christ to him, and 
then afterwards by the revelation of Jesus Christ in 
him. We are converted by the revelation of Jesus 
Christ in us; there is neither man nor woman here 
who has been converted by the revelation of Christ 
to them. Paul speaks of himself in another place 
as one born out of due time; literally he was born 
before his time. What was his time ? What is 
the meaning of this ? L,ook at the verse again : 
1 ' For a pattern to them which should hereafter be- 
lieve on him to life everlasting. ' ' Paul was a Jew, 
and he is referring to the fact that in the latter day 
when the Jews are converted, they shall be con- 
verted by the revelation of Jesus Christ to them. 
" They shall look upon him whom they pierced 
and mourn. ' ' There will be a manifestation of the 
Son of God to Israel, and by His glory in the 
heavens they will be struck down and converted 
nationally as Paul was individually ; so that he, as a 
Jew, was a pattern to those who shall hereafter be- 
lieve, even his people, the nation of Israel ; but his 
conversion is not a pattern of conversions which 
have taken place since the days of Paul. Of course 
there are some characteristics alike; but Paul was 
converted in a special way, in a distinguished and 
in a very distinctive manner and for a set purpose. 
We have ample proof of the reality of Paul's 
conversion; for Paul was converted through the 



PauPs Devotion to Jesus. 135 

Spirit's work upon him. 1 Cor. xii, 3. u No man 
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost." You cannot reason an unbeliever into 
the recognition of Christ's eternal Deity; he has to 
be taught by the Spirit; "no man can receive any- 
thing except it be given him from heaven. ' ' When 
Paul was smitten to the earth, we find him at once 
responding, ■ ' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' ' 
Just think of it! A persecutor who hated the name 
of Jesus! u Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " 
u No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by 
the Holy Ghost. ' ' When you look up and say to 
Jesus, "Jehovah, Lord!" it implies your submis- 
sion to Him, it implies your allegiance to Him, and 
you will recognize Him as your Master ever after- 
wards. Believe, then obey. 

My pastor in Boston, one of the staunchest theo- 
logians we had — in fact, Mr. Spurgeon told me \/ 
one time that he was the bulwark of New England 
evangelical theology — my pastor, Dr. A. J. Gor- 
don, told me that when he and his wife went into 
the hills of New Hampshire there were a great 
many skeptics there. On Sunday morning he said 
to his wife, ' ' We had best go to the village church ; 
possibly we may stumble into some Unitarian place, 
but let us go. ' ' They went, and he said, ' ' I won- 
der how soon will we discover what kind of a 
preacher this is, whether a Unitarian, or a servant 
of Jesus Christ. ' ' The choir sang a little, and then 



J 



6 Spiritual Life. 



the pastor prayed, and the first words of that prayer 
/ were, "O, blessed L,ord!" Dr. Gordon touched 
his wife and whispered, "We are all right; no man 
can call Jesus L,ord, but by the Holy Ghost." It 
is so. Paul was able to call Jesus, L,ord, as soon as 
he was converted. 

Paul was converted when he surrendered. Acts 
xxvi. 19. "Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was 
not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." The 
Apostle Paul yielded at once; it was one of the 
grand qualities of the man; as soon as Jesus revealed 
Himself to Paul there was a surrender of Paul to 
Jesus. There is no conversion without surrender. 

Then Paul was converted in answer to prayer. I 
give you this from implication ; I do not find any 
place in connection with Paul's history where it is 
said that actual prayer was offered for him; but I 
take it by implication that prayer was offered for 
him. Rom. xvi. 7. "My kinsmen who were in 
Christ before me." The apostle acknowledges there 
that some of his own household had been in Christ 
before him. Perhaps they were his cousins; do not 
you think they prayed for the zealous persecutor? 
Can you not imagine them standing up in the little 
assembly and saying, "There is our cousin Saul, 
who is now on his way to Damascus, and is get- 
ting fiercer and madder all the time against the 
saints ; pray for him. ' ' You can imagine that with- 
out perverting a line of Scripture. So that I see 



Paul *s Devotion to Jesus, 137 

God's sovereign grace, the revelation of Jesus Christ, 
the Spirit working in his heart, the surrender of the 
man and answer to prayer all potential influences 
co-working for the salvation of Paul. Paul's con- 
version was a real conversion. 

After conversion comes devotion. The devotion 
of Paul was exemplified in two ways: first, in his 
suffering for Christ, and secondly, in his service for 
Christ. Suffering for Christ, serving Christ. Notice 
how Paul suffered. There are two kinds of suffer- 
ing; suffering for Christ and suffering with Christ. 
There was the suffering which he endured because 
of his oneness with Jesus Christ, and there was also 
the sufferings which came upon him through perse- 
cution, caused by his allegiance to Jesus Christ. 
In reading the life of Paul we are apt to be carried 
away by his eloquence, power and glorious charac- 
ter. We say, what a grand man! What a grand 
hero! But for years, as I have looked closely into 
the man's life, I have been struck more with the 
spirit in which he suffered, with the resignation and 
the patience and the meekness of the apostle, not- 
withstanding the intensity of his suffering, than 
with any other great quality which he possessed. 
He looms up before me as a greater man, as a more 
devout Christian because of the spirit in which he 
suffered. 

/. PauV s sufferings for Christ. 

Acts ix. 15, 16. u But the I^ord said unto him, Go 



138 Spiritual Life. 

thy way : for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear 
my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the 
children of Israel. For I will shew him how 
great things he must suffer for my name's sake." 
The apostle, then, is selected as a vessel to bear the 
name of Jesus, and it is designed by the Lord that 
he suffer ; "I will show him how great things he 
must suffer for my name's sake." It looks at first 
like the law of retaliation ; he made others suffer, 
now he is about to suffer : but that is not the 
purpose of the Lord, He is not avenging himself 
on Paul. He is simply going to show Paul that 
his best work is to come through suffering, that 
discipline is necessary to make him a more per- 
fect witness for Jesus Christ on earth. 

Galatiansvi. 17. " I bear in my body the marks 
of the Lord Jesus. ' ' This was a peculiar kind of suf- 
fering to which he referred. I do not know what 
is meant, but it is very evident that Paul had some 
mark upon him, some mark in his body, in his 
flesh, which at once distinguished him ; he appeals 
frequently to the people concerning it. ' ( Let no 
man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks 
of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Just as in those days they 
branded their slaves with the mark of ownership ; 
so the Lord Jesus in some way put his special 
brand upon Paul. Paul called it the stigma or 
the brand-mark of Jesus in his body. See Gal. 
iv, 13, 14. "Ye know how through infirmity 



PanV s Devotion to Jesus. 139 

of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you 
at the first. And my temptation which was 
in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected ; but 
received me as an angel of God, even as 
Christ Jesus." There was some infirmity of 
the flesh, and said Paul, you received me 
notwithstanding that infirmity, as an angel from 
heaven, as even Christ Jesus. He praises the 
Galatian converts that they received him notwith- 
standing this peculiar infirmity, whatever it was. 
Now there are a great many thoughtful Bible 
students who have come to the conclusion that 
there was something the matter with Paul's eyes, 
and that this was the brand-mark to which he 
referred. He, himself, speaks of his slowness of 
speech ; and it is the conclusion of all students 
that Paul was a little man, a man small in sta- 
ture, a man of very meagre proportions, of a stam- 
mering tongue, and that there was also a weak- 
ness of the eyes ; perhaps defective vision. I do 
not give you this as an original thought, but it 
is supposed that when Paul saw the glory of 
Jesus Christ and he was blinded by that glory, 
he never fully recovered the use of his eyes, for 
the glory of the celestial vision affected his eye- 
sight. Is there any proof of this ? I think so. 
Gal. vi. 11. u Ye see how large a letter I have writ- 
ten unto you with mine own hand. ' ' Paul was not 
accustomed to writing his letters ; he employed an 



140 Spiritual Life. 

amanuensis as you see at the closing of his Epistles. 
Nor does he mean, u I have written a large letter," 
referring to the length of the letter, but "you see 
with what large letters I have written to you with 
mine own hand. ' ' Writing with large letters shows 
that there was something defective in his eyesight. 
We may paraphrase it thus : ( ' You see with what 
large letters I have written ; I have dictated to no 
amanuensis ; I have gone to the trouble to write 
myself, and it has been a great deal of trouble ; 
you see what great pot-hooks I have made. ' ' Again, 
Gal. iv. 15. "Where is then the blessedness ye 
spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been 
possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, 
and have given them to me." Such was the love 
of the Galatian converts at first for the Apostle Paul, 
they would have plucked out their own eyes and 
given them to him. Now all these verses would 
lead us to suppose this was the brand-mark which 
he suffered; and the infirmity of his flesh which he 
accepted, and this may have been the thorn in 
the flesh, which he prayed might be taken away, 
and of which the Lord said, " If I take it away 
you may forget yourself, but I am going to give 
you so much grace that it will be beneficial to you. " 
Paul then said, ' ' Most gladly will I rather glory in 
these infirmities." He gained power by the 
presence of that very thorn which he would not pos- 
sess had it been taken away. 



PauPs Devotion to Jesus. 141 

Let us now consider the persecutions and suffer- 
ings which he endured and the spirit in which he 
endured them. 2 Cor. vi. 4, 5. " But in all things 
approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in 
much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis- 
tresses. In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
in labours, in watchings, in fastings. ' ' He reckons 
up all that he endured for Christ's sake. 2 Cor. 
xi. 23-28. u Are they ministers of Christ? (I 
speak as a fool) I am more ; in labours more abun- 
dant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
quent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times 
received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I 
beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suf- 
fered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in 
the deep. In journeying often, in perils of 
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own 
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 
city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
sea, in perils among false brethren. In weari- 
ness and painfulness, in watchings often, in 
hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold 
and nakedness. Besides those things that are 
without, that which cometh upon me daily, the 
care of all the churches. ' ' I wish you would read 
all this at your home some time and read it care- 
fully. I want you to notice the grace which sus- 
tained Paul under such trials, and the devotion 
of the man for Jesus. ' l Five times received I forty 



142 Spiritual Life. 

stripes save one." In administering this awful 
punishment, the officers first of all bent the body 
of the prisoner over a block, so that every muscle, 
every sinew was strained to the utmost degree. 
Then the executioner laid the first blow upon the 
back and shoulders of the victim. That first blow 
would not only tear the skin, but make pieces of 
flesh fly from the body of the criminal, and often 
leave the bones exposed. The second blow would 
follow upon the first, going deeper into his body, 
while very often the third blow killed the man. 
Paul suffered that whipping not once nor twice but 
five consecutive times he received forty stripes — 
one hundred and ninety-five stripes, of the Jewish 
lash had been laid upon his sensitive back. The 
whip was composed of thirteen lashes, which, when 
laid on three times, made thirty-nine stripes. Never 
once did he grumble, never once did he complain, 
never once did he cry out ; that was one way of 
witnessing for Christ. When his mouth was closed 
in silent submission, every open wound made by 
the lash in the flesh of his body was a mouth bear- 
ing testimony to the grace of the risen Christ. 

Paul was also whipped by the Romans. The 
lictors laid their rods upon the body of the prisoner. 
You remember at one time in Philippi where he 
had come to preach he was immediately arrested. 
' ' Come over into Macedonia and help us, " was the 
call. Paul and Silas obeyed, but instantly they are 



PauPs Devotion to Jesus. 143 

in a Roman dungeon. Yon know what a horrible 
place a Roman dungeon was in those days. As I 
stood in the Mamertine prison in Rome, Paul's 
traditional prison — as I stood there in utter dark- 
ness except the little lamp of the guide, there came 
to my mind a little man who had been immured in 
these prisons, for I read in the 16th chapter of Acts 
that they put him into the lower prison, when they 
had beaten him, and left him there. There was 
no ointment for his sores, no loving hand to bathe 
his stripes; they were put into the lower dungeon 
and their feet made fast in the stocks. But Paul 
and Silas said, "L,et us have a prayer-meeting!" 
And they prayed and sang praises unto God. I do 
not understand it, I cannot conceive of it, but I 
believe it; I cannot understand how any human 
being should be willing to submit to all that ex- 
quisite torture without some word of complaint. 
But he was proving in his life his devotion to his 
Master, and God responded to those songs of praise 
and that old prison house was shaken. God's 
Amen was an earthquake. You know the result, 
that the church at Philippi was founded, after the 
jailer and his family had been converted. My 
friends, Peter got three thousand souls when he 
testified of Christ, but Stephen got three thousand 
stones for his faithful testimony. I pity the man in 
any day who is not persecuted for Jesus Christ ; you 
cannot be faithful, devoted, Christian men and 



144 Spiritual Life. 

women and not rouse opposition. The enemies 
of Jesus will not imprison you, it is true, but they 
will sneer at you. There is no Christian lady in 
this town who, if she is loyal to Christ, will not be 
sneered at by fashionable society, and fashionable 
society is the most irreligious thing in this world 
outside of hell. But thank God for the grace to 
bear it all. So Paul was imprisoned, and beaten, 
and stoned, and kicked, and cuffed; the Pharisees 
were after him, and the Sadducees, and the Hero- 
dians, and the Gentiles, all were after him with 
threats and blows, but the brave, noble man could 
joyfully exclaim, " None of these things move me 
from the purpose of my being, that Christ shall be 
magnified in my body, whether it be life, or by 
death." 

Do you ask me if I have grace to suffer for 
Christ ? I do not know anything about it. If we 
have grace for the present occasion, we can trust 
for the future. Every time I think of this, it 
overcomes me to think of this small weak man 
who never had a palace car, was never provided 
with first-class hotels, going from place to place, 
suffering all things, yet never complaining ; yea, 
rather, he is glad of it, thankful for it, that he is 
counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. 

Did you ever visit the Church of the Tra Fon- 
taine outside the city of Rome ? My dear friend, 
Dr. George B. Taylor, doing missionary work in 



Paul s Devotion lo Jesus. 145 

Rome, showed me great kindness when there. I 
said to him : ' ' There is one place to which I mnst 
go before I return to America; I must go out to 
the traditional site where Paul was beheaded." 
We went out there, and saw the three fountains 
bubbling up in the church. According to the 
tradition, when they struck off Paul's head, it 
fell on the ground, and a well of water sprung up, 
and the head bounded on, and another well sprung 
up, and the head bounded again, and another well 
sprung up. I drank of the water from these three 
fountains, while I prayed for the like spirit which 
possessed Paul. How true, that wherever Paul's 
Kpistles have gone, fountains of living water have 
welled up. Oh, what a man he was; yet only a 
man, a man of like passions with ourselves. I 
talked to you last night about consecration in the 
abstract; I present to you to-night consecration 
in the concrete. Paul is an illustration of conse- 
cration — a man who suffered for Jesus Christ so 
sweetly, so patiently, so constantly; faithful unto 
death, and therefore deserving the crown of life. 

II. The second division of this subject is Paul s 
service for. Christ. I wish to call attention to the 
secret springs of Paul's devotion. What were the 
secret springs of action in his life ? First, recog- 
nition of the claims of Christ upon him. Acts 
xxvii. 23. u Whose I am and whom I serve." 
The Apostle Paul recognized the claims of Jesus 
10 



146 Spiritual Life. 

upon him. " Icli Dien," I serve, is on the plume 
of the Prince of Wales. That was the emblazoned 
motto on the plume of Paul, with this addition: 
1 ( Whom I serve. ' ' Now, we have, in the first 
place, relationship, ( ' whose I am, ' ' and then we 
have responsibility growing out of that relation- 
ship, ' ' whom I serve. ' ' Paul never thought for a 
moment that he belonged to himself; it never 
entered into his mind ; he knew he belonged to 
Jesus Christ ; he knew that Jesus Christ bought 
him and paid for him, and therefore his purpose to 
serve Him." That will simplify the whole ques- 
tion of consecration. Next, Gratitude. Gal. ii. 
21. I want you to notice what Paul said: " I do 
not set aside the law, but if righteousness come by 
the law, then Christ died for nothing ;' ' but He 
died for something; we find it in a previous verse: 
' ' He loved me, and gave himself for me. ' ' Now, 
Paul was moved with gratitude. And the motive 
of gratitude, as you know, is a mighty motive. 

At a mission service in Boston, some of the con- 
verts could not speak English very well. A Por- 
tuguese sailor stood up, and scarcely knew what to 
say, but his face was shining, and finally he stam- 
mered: "If any man say I do not love Jesus, I 
black his eyes!" It was not elegant, but it was 
expressive. Well, my dear friends, if we have 
that kind of gratitude in us, is there anything 
under heaven that we will not undertake for Him ? 



PauPs Devotion to Jesus. 147 

There will be nothing we shall consider too precious 
for us to lay at the feet of our King, who has re- 
deemed us by His blood. 

Think of the personal affection which Paul had 
for Jesus. Acts xxi. 11-13. "And when he was 
come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his 
own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy 
Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the 
man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him 
into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we 
heard these things, both we, and they of that place, 
besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then 
Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to 
break mine heart ? for I am read) 7 not to be bound 
only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of 
the Lord Jesus." The prophet Agabus came to 
him, and, putting the girdle on him, said: " Paul, 
do not go to Jerusalem, for thus saith the Holy 
Ghost, the Jews will bind the man that owneth this 
girdle, and will deliver him to the Romans. ' ' Im- 
mediately the little crowd of believers said some- 
thing like this: " Paul, do not go. We cannot 
give you up. You will lose your head, and what 
shall we do without you?" Ah, but hear the 
noble, the eloquent, the Christ-exalting reply : " I 
am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at 
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Per- 
suade Paul to turn aside from the path of service! 
No, never. Heroic Paul, thou art now with thy 



148 Spiritual Life. 

Lord, and in the resurrection thou wilt receive thy 
full reward ; the hand pierced for thy sins will 
place the crown of glory upon thy shining brow. 
The good Lord make us a devoted people, that 
Christ may be magnified in our body, whether it 
be by life or by death. Amen. 




VIII. 

COMMUNION WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

OMMUNION with Christ is illustrated 
by the fellowship which David's men 
had with David. This is an Old Tes- 
tament study, and I shall first show you 
how you may study the Old Testament with profit, 
as I develop this subject — the power of fellowship. 
I have tried to show you the power of the Spirit 
and the power of the word, and now it is the power 
of communion with Jesus Christ. And I think if 
we are walking- with the Master, and if the word 
and Spirit dwell in us, we shall then have all the 
elements of spiritual power in our life. 

i Samuel xxii. i, 2. i ' David therefore departed 
thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam : and when 
his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they 
went down thither to him. And every one that 
was in distress, and every one that was in debt, 
and every one that was discontented, gathered 
themselves unto him; and he became a captain 
over them: and there were with him about four 
hundred men." Here we have, first of all, the 
power of personal attraction. In his exile, David 
went down to the cave Adullam, and the power of 

(149) 



150 Spiritual Life. 

David's personal character drew to him four hun- 
dred men. He could not offer them any induce- 
ments or luxuries, he could not offer them any 
rewards or prospects; he was in a cave, in exile; 
unpopular, yet they gathered unto him. Those 
who were discontented, in debt, in distress; those 
who were unhappy under the rule of Saul were 
drawn by the personal presence of David into that 
cave. Then you notice the proof of their loyalty 
to David. When they came to him in the cave 
they made him captain over them; they submitted 
to his discipline and David taught their hands to 
war and their fingers to fight. They gathered 
themselves to David in the cave, and remained 
there with him for some time, and when these 
same men came out of that cave, as we shall pres- 
ently see, they were mighty men, men of renown. 
The spiritual teaching is this: Jesus is not popular 
in the world to-day; if He were in any of our 
cities, where His servants gather and His word is 
preached, thousands would flock to hear about Him, 
but not to follow Him. He is not popular in this 
country to-day; He is not popular in the world 
to-day; He is in exile for the present. When He 
came unto His own, His own received Him not. 
Satan, in this age, rules in the hearts of the chil- 
dren of disobedience; he is the prince of this world; 
he holds the reins of government at present, but 
God is above him, and Jesus is coming back and 



Commimio7i with Jesus Christ. 151 

He shall sit upon His holy hill in Zion. Now it 
is by His personal attraction He brings us out of 
the world into fellowship with Himself. Every 
sinner in distress, in debt, in bondage, in trouble, 
attracted by the personality of Jesus is drawn to 
Him in the cave where our Christ can train us, 
weak and feeble as we have been in the past, so 
that we shall become mighty men and men of 
renown. 

L,et us turn to the 12th chapter of 1 Chron. vs. 
1, 2. u Now these are they that came to David to 
Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of 
Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the 
mighty men, helpers of the war. They were 
armed with bows, and could use both the right 
hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting 
arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of 
Benjamin. ' ' We shall now trace out the history of 
these men. They were helpers of the war. There 
are two classes of Christians, the helpers and 
the hinderers. If we are not helping, we are hin- 
dering; you may try to take a neutral position, but 
you cannot; no man can be neutral in relation to 
Jesus Christ. ( ' He that gathereth not with me, 
scattereth." I would rather to-day be a helper in 
the church of God, even though every effort be a 
blunder, than to be a hinderer. Then these men 
were prepared helpers. They were armed with the 
armor which had been provided for them, and you 



152 Spiritual Life. 

notice they were skillful in the use of it; they could 
hurl a stone with the left hand as well as the right 
and shoot arrows out of a bow. Dextrous and 
ambi-dextrous. They would not miss a hair, they 
were so keen and skillful in the use of their 
weapons. When as sinners we come to Jesus 
Christ, we are soldiers from that moment. The 
next thing is to be armed, and to be armed always, 
to be like a soldier, armed cap-a-pie ; from head to 
foot; "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor 
of God." It does not say wherefore make unto 
you the whole armor of God, but take; it is pro- 
vided already. Then we are to be skillful in the 
use of the weapons, and that comes by training, 
by discipline, by studying the use of the weapons, 
to know how to handle shield and sword. Some 
of us Christians, make great mistakes; we often 
catch the sword by the blade and cut our fingers, 
instead of taking it by the hilt and using it upon 
the enemy. So it is important for us to be skillful 
in the use of our weapons. 

David was a skilled captain ; David understood 
the art of war, though he had been a shepherd boy ; 
he taught these men in the cave how to use the 
weapons of their warfare. Just think of it. Every 
day they were with him, drawing inspiration from 
his presence, every day influenced by his presence, 
every day taught how to make slings and bows and 
how to use them. They became helpers of the 
war. 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 153 

Turn now to 1 Chron. , xii. 8th verse. ' 'And of the 
Gadites there separated themselves unto David into 
the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men 
of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and 
buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, 
and were swift as the roes upon the mountains. ' ' 
Now notice three things said about these men. 
First, they were separated men ; they ceased alliance 
with David's enemies, they had no more fellowship 
with Saul. My friends, we can have no communion 
with God until we live a life of separation ; and it 
is not simply separation from evil but separation 
unto God. I may separate myself from worldly 
company and become very conceited and exclusive 
and self-complacent ; but to be separated unto the 
the King is necessarily separation from self also. 
Second, they were not only separated men, but 
they were heroic men; their faces were like the 
faces of lions. The lion, you know, is the emblem 
of courage. And when those men came out of the 
cave, there was nothing cowardly about them, no 
timidity or fear written on their countenances. 
Thirdly, they were prompt men, responsive, 
men. They were ready to do David's behests ; 
whatever he told them do, they did it, and did it 
with alacrity ; like Mercury with winged heels they 
flew away on his errands. Their feet were swift as 
roes upon the mountains. You see how full of 
the spirit of loyalty these men were to David. 



154 Spiritual Life. 

Now David's men suggest these thoughts to us ; 
thoughts concerning our relations to Jesus. If we 
are in the cave with Him, if we are in fellowship 
with Him, we become prompt, courageous, respon- 
sive Christians, and when He makes known His 
will, we should readily obey it. When God told 
Abraham to offer up his son, we read that " early 
in the morning he saddled the ass." He did not 
wait until noon or evening, but Abraham knew that 
the best kind of obedience was prompt obedience, 
so early in the morning he prepared to put God's 
awful command into execution. Likewise David's 
men were prompt to serve their king. And their 
readiness is our example. 

Now turn to the 14th verse. ( ( These were of the 
sons of Gad, captains of the host; one of the least was 
over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. ' ' 
Read in the margin, ' ' One that was least could re- 
sist a hundred, and the greatest could resist a 
thousand. ' ' When they went to the cave they were 
men in distress, men greatly depressed in spirit, but 
David taught them, disciplined them, moulded 
them, empowered them and emboldened them, 
so that when they came out of the cave, the one 
that was least could resist a hundred of the enemy 
and the one that was greatest could resist a thousand. 

Verse 15 " These are they that went over Jordan 
in the first month, when it had overflown all his 
banks ; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 155 

both toward the east and toward the west." It was 
the time when Jordan overflowed all its banks ; 
there were no ferries; there were no bridges. How 
then did they cross the river. They must have 
swum over. These men crossed the Jordan and on 
the other side put to flight all the people of the 
valley. Jordan in the Scripture means the river of 
Judgment. There are a great many Christians who 
are still at the cross and around the cross; it is a 
good place to be, around the cross, but that is not 
the place for the believer. We look back to the 
cross and thank God for it, but we are to be on the 
resurrection side of the cross, having gone through 
death with our Lord, having died with Him, having 
been raised with Him, we are children of the hills, 
children of the resurrection. Jordan is not the river 
of death, the land of Canaan is not the type of heaven; 
you would not want such a heaven as that which 
Canaan represented, for Canaan was a place full of 
enemies. When the Israelites entered Canaan they 
went into battle and conflict. Canaan represents 
the spiritual life into which many Christians enter 
now. Alas, some are yet in the wilderness, sigh- 
ing for the leeks and onions of Egypt, while others 
have crossed the Jordan and possess the land. But 
now they have to fight Philistines and Canaanites. 
It is the better life of the two, though great temp- 
tations assail the believer who has entered into 
heavenly places in present experience, correspond- 
ing to the heights of Canaan possessed by Israel. 



156 Spiritual Life. 

The children of God who cross the Jordan in ex- 
perience, have to fight against principalities and 
powers and wicked spirits in heavenly regions. I 
was taught that lesson many years ago. When a 
young man, I went through the south of Ireland 
speaking at little meetings. I visited the city of 
Cork when about twenty years of age to preach 
the gospel. One day somebody said, "I want you 
to go to the Almshouse and see an old lady there. ' ' 
I went and found an old lady eighty-two years of 
age, lying on her bed. I saw she was drawing 
near death, and as I talked with her I found her a 
very bright Christian ; her face was shining like the 
face of an angel. I was a very young Christian 
myself, but when I came there I thought I could 
help her. I did not know that the L,ord was going 
to use her to help me. She had been at one time 
a wealthy woman, but her husband and children 
died and her property vanished. It is a great thing 
when a person has come down from wealth to 
poverty to be submissive. I said to her, "I sup- 
pose death will soon claim you, and I want to ask 
you, are you afraid to die ?' ' She looked up very 
happily at me and said, ' ' I am not going to die. ' ' 
4 ' Not going to die ? You are pretty old now and 
you seem feeble, and in the course of nature, you 
will soon die, and it is well to be prepared. " " Oh, 
no, ' ' she said, ' ' I am not going to die, because I 
died already. ' ' Well, I looked at the old lady and 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 157 

I thought, "poor thing! her mind is wandering. " 
And I tried just to humor her, because I thought 
she was in a state of mental weakness ; so I inquired 
1 ' When did you die ?' ' She promptly replied, ' ' I 
died eighteen hundred years ago. " " Oh, yes, ' ' I 
thought, \ ' the poor woman's mind is entirely gone. ' ' 
Well I smiled and took up my hat and said, " It is 
all right; look to Jesus and you will be all right." 
i ' Well now, ' ' she said, ' c you think I am not talk- 
ing good sense, but my dear boy I wish to tell you 
you do not know what it means, and I want to tell 
you what it does mean. When Jesus came down 
from heaven to earth, He died as my substitute, 
and when He died under the load of my sin, God 
reckoned that death as my death. I died with Christ; 
I was buried with Christ, I am raised with Christ; 
I have eternal life in Christ. Death is behind me 
and I shall not die again ; I will fall asleep in Jesus, 
but for that I am ready. There is no death for me, 
I am a child of resurrection. I am on the heaven 
side of the Jordan, and I am now waiting till the 
L,ord shall hush me to rest in his blessed arms. ' ' 

Well, I tell you, friends, I saw heaven opened 
around me, and I got a truth that I had never 
dreamed was in the word of God, that I was a 
dead man, a buried man, and a risen man. It is 
true, we are children of resurrection ; we are in 
union with our risen Lord; we have crossed Jordan; 
we can put to flight the enemies of the valley. 



158 Spiritual Life. 

Paul said: "Since ye then be risen with Christ, 
seek those things which are above;" do not be 
looking down on the earth, seeking to make the 
best of this world, but seek the things which are 
above, because you are already a child of the hills. 

L,et us now trace these men a little further in 
their history. Turn to the xxiii. chapter of 2 
Samuel. Do not be troubled, brother, sister, if 
you are known very little in this life ; the Lord 
Jesus keeps a diary of your daily acts ; and the 
time will come when He will read out your name 
and tell of the work which you have accomplished 
in His service; we shall be pillars in the temple 
above. I used to think that a pillar was for sup- 
port, and I wondered how I could support heaven 
in any way, until, after seeing these old pillars in 
Rome, with inscriptions upon them, the records of 
heroic deeds of long ago, making the men famous 
to-day. There stand these old pillars, with the 
names of Roman heroes, with their deeds recorded 
in bas-relief upon the column. So we shall be 
pillars in the temple of our God, and our names 
will blaze out in the heavenly city. The least 
act which we do for God to-day will be recorded 
upon the pillar. So do not be discouraged if you 
are not very much known. If you are living to 
God, He knows your name and records your deeds. 

So these men who went into the cave became 
well known. The first was Adino, which means 



Communion with Jesus Christ 159 

ornament. There are two kinds of ornaments. I 
was introduced to a man once by his pastor, who 
said; "he is an ornament to our church." x\nd I 
asked, ' ( What kind of an ornament are you ? Are 
you a piece of bric-a-brac ? Or are you another 
kind of an ornament — a useful vessel ?' ' This 
man Adino was a useful ornament; he was a glory 
to the company with which he was identified; he 
went out and slew eight hundred at one time. 

The 9th verse. Bleazer is a very interesting 
man. The children of Israel went against the 
Philistines, who defied them in battle. Soon as 
the Israelites saw the host of the Philistines, they 
fled away, and every soldier of Israel became a 
coward, and left only one man there, and the great 
army of the Philistines surrounded him. But we 
are told Eleazar ' ' arose and smote the Philistines 
until his hand was weary and his hand clave to his 
sword, and the L,ord wrought a great victory that 
day." 

Here is a man who grasped his sword. They 
could not pull it out of his hand, and the sword 
went on doing its execution. He represents the 
man with the Book; the man who is identified with 
the word ; ■ ' the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
word of God." You may be weary intellectually, 
you may be weary physically. I have seen many 
a man exhausted in the battle ; but as the word 
came from him, as the word leaped out of his 



160 Spiritual Life. 

mouth, that word became a piercing sword, which 
put to flight the Philistines. So our faith must be 
in the sword of the Spirit. I will tell you what I 
think we have been doing by mistake for many 
years, not only here but elsewhere: we have been 
having great controversies in the past; we have 
had great discussions aforetime, and we have be- 
come very skillful in debate; we have been using 
arguments which may be right enough in their 
place, but my dear friends, instead of seeking to 
meet infidels by trying to prove to them the reason- 
ableness of the Bible, do not waste your breath in 
arguing to vindicate God's word ; it will vindicate 
itself. I would not spend two and a half minutes 
with a willing sceptic, attempting to prove the 
divine origin of the word, but would like to stab 
him with it ; the sword will do its own execution. 
There was an old Christian travelling some years 
ago, and there was a full-fledged sceptic in the car- 
riage who prated against Christianity. The old 
preacher turned around and gave him a text of 
Scripture. "Ah, yes," he said, "you quote from 
that Book, but I do not believe in that Book." 
And the preacher gave him another text. ' ' Well, 
now, prove to me that your Bible is the Word of 
God." He gave him another text. " I want you 
to be reasonable ; I am willing to argue with you, 
but first of all prove to me that the Bible is in- 
spired. ' ' He gave him another text. c ' You are 



Cojnmunion with Jesus Christ. 161 

not fair; I challenge you to prove to me whether 
your Book is divine." He gave him another text. 
u Well, I will not have anything to do with you at 
all;" and he gave him another text. Then the 
young man got mad and said, ' ' You are an old 
fool." And he gave him another text. Then 
said the preacher, " If I wanted to kill you with a 
Damascus blade, I would not come up and say, 
4 My dear sir, this sword is of steel;' I would not 
try to prove it, but I would put it into you, and it 
would prove itself. ' ' • Six months afterwards the 
young man met him, and said, ' ' Sir, do you re- 
member me?" u No, sir." "I am the young 
man who was riding in that coach ; you know 
how angry I was with you; well, I want to tell 
you, if you had gone into an argument with me I 
would have been glad to make sport of you; but 
you used that Book, and it proved the sword which 
cut me to the heart; but it has also saved me, and 
I want to thank you,« sir." Brethren, let us have 
faith in the old Sword, then, though the hand grow 
weary, the Iyord will give us victory. A man came 
to me some time ago and said, ' ' I hope you won' t 
let so and so speak at the meeting. " u Why not ?' ' 
" Well," said he, u his grammar is so bad, and the 
ladies do not like him. " u Does he expound Scrip- 
ture properly?" " Oh, yes, he knows all about the 
Bible. " "I don' t care if he knows nothing of 
grammar; if he can give us the Word of God he 
ii 



1 62 Spiritual Life. 

may testify." "Them that honor me I will honor." 
You know I do not discount intellectual ability. 
I thank God for every intellect consecrated to the 
Lord Jesus ; but I would not give you a bad fig for 
the biggest brain in this world if it did not exalt 
the Book of God. Intellect of itself is but a 
dagger of lath, a paper sword, a wilted rag with 
which to fight against spiritual foes. 

Look at the next man in the nth verse. Now, 
this man's name, Shammah, means fame or renown; 
he became famous because he defended the land 
and took it back from the Philistines. I will tell 
you a little secret; if you are after fame, you will 
never get it. If you get anything called fame or 
renown, it is a small affair, but if you are faithful 
to the Lord, He will give you all the fame you can 
stand. Just remember, do not make fame or renown 
the object of your life, else you will be the losers 
but be faithful to God and He will take care of 
your reputation. The Philistines, the marauding 
Philistines, came down and reaped the grain of the 
poor Israelites who fled away from before them. 
That went on until these Israelites were impover- 
ished. One day the Philistines came and the 
Israelitish farmers ran away from them, and the 
Philistines began to gather up the barley, but one 
Jew stood out boldly in the little field to defend it. 
The enemy said, "Why, what is this man doing 
here ? " But he braved the whole host of the Phil- 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 163 

istines, and overcame them and took that little field 
back from them. That was a bit of God's covenant 
land; He gave it to Abraham by an everlasting 
covenant. Here was a conscientious man. He had 
a conscience for God's land in all its parts and par- 
ticles; he would not give a single foot of it over to 
the Philistines. We have a great many Philistines 
who tell us this part of the Bible is not essential 
and that part is not essential ; and there are a great 
many timid Christians who say, ' ' L,et us allow the 
c higher critics ' to have this and that;" and the 
poor backboneless men have not pluck to withstand 
the enemies who reason with their unsound logic, 
and say, " There was no such man as this, and 
there was no such man as that." Then do the 
weaklings say, u Yes, that is reasonable, that is 
commendable. ' ' But, thank God ! there are men who 
are standing up to-day who shield the Bible from 
the ( ' higher critics. ' ' They are defending it, too. 
Thank God we have a complete Bible; let us hold 
on to it. Fight for it, live for it, die for it, and 
God will honor you. We hurl back the innuendoes 
of the sceptics with no fear for their learning, 
and we declare our faith in the whole Bible from 
Genesis to Malachi, and from Matthew to Rev- 
elation. 

"Oh, well now," some reply, "you are an ex- 
tremist; that is fanaticism, you are not reasonable 
at all. * ' Am I not reasonable because I think your 



164 Spiritual Life. 

logic crooked ? I have no faith in man's mental in- 
fallibility; I do not trust anybody's logic. If a man 
is born crooked how can he help it? We are all 
born with a moral twist. Bvery faculty is out of 
plumb. Man's mind is warped, and only when 
men are converted they see their own crookedness. 
Then do we seek to exalt the word. It is a grand 
thing to see a man right towards the truth and hold- 
ing the truth. So this man would not give up a 
turf to the Philistines; all the others fled, but he 
stood there fighting and won back the land. I 
thank God that down here South — as I have often 
said North — you hold on to God's word. My hope 
of the country theologically is in the Southern peo- 
ple; they are true to the Bible. As I said to you 
the other night, you are sound in the faith, but you 
are sound asleep. Your theology is good enough, 
but your spiritual temper needs quickening. You 
need salvation from spiritual inertness. Set your 
theology on fire for God and you will burn down 
the barriers hindering aggressive evangelism. 

Observe the next man in the 19th and 20th verses. 
Here are three distinct acts wrought by this man. 
Benaiah is a very significant name; it means wise 
and strong; and when we have strength and wis- 
dom we are good Christians. Well this man first 
of all slew two lion-like men of Moab; then he 
went against an Egyptian, a goodly man, and pulled 
his spear out of his hand and thrust the spear into 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 165 

him and killed him with his own spear ; next he 
tracked a lion to his den, and fought that lion there 
and killed him. Moab is a type of the flesh, Egypt 
is a type of the world, and the lion is a type of the 
devil ; Benaiah represents the believer, who can 
overcome whatsoever is against us. It is a great 
thing to stand for God in these days opposing this 
three-fold power; the world, the flesh and the devil. 
L,et me say to you here that this man did it all him- 
self; he fought the men of Moab without any help 
from the people; and he went after the lion with- 
out any help from the leaders. Now you can 
imagine what an exciting time it was. There was 
the lion prowling around that village. Probably it 
had eaten some child or woman. We are told by 
travelers that when a lion tastes human flesh it 
cares nothing for animals after that, and that a lion 
will prowl around a village in India or Africa and 
permit deer or antelope to go by without touching 
them, because human flesh is sweeter. Everywhere 
this lion had been committing great depredations, 
and the people were all alarmed. I can imagine 
that one day Benaiah went to the house of some of 
the Jews and said, ' ' Brethren, we must do some- 
thing; there is a great lion around here and our 
women and children are in danger. ' ' And I can 
imagine him calling a committee together, and they 
all talked it over and proposed to organize, but 
that was the end of it. I have seen many an or- 



1 66 Spiritital Life. 

ganization that was so perfect in its machinery that 
the only trouble with it was it died at the birth. 
Now, organization has its place, but there are 
times when we must rise above organization. 

Benaiah could not get an organization to go after 
that lion ; the president might say, "It is snowing 
and I can not go out in the cold." The secretary 
might object, "I guess we have not funds enough 
in the treasury to buy weapons for that lion; " and 
the other members of the committee would vote, 
* ' That we do not go after the lion to-day. ' ' But 
Benaiah walked out of the door and went straight 
ahead and entered into the den after that lion and he 
killed him. Thank God for individual men. If Noah 
had had a committee, he would never have built the 
ark. I do not despise committees and organizations, 
but God has raised up men who must put their 
individuality into the work of aggressive missionary 
endeavor. So let us take courage from David's men. 

Now read from the 15th to the 17th verse. Think 
about those three men who came to David. Alas, 
David ! Iyook at him; his eyes are sunken in his 
head; his cheeks are pallid; his lips are cracking 
and blistering; and as he sits there he cries, u Oh, 
that I had a drink of water from the well of Beth- 
lehem which is by the gate !" Well, three of the 
men heard it and they said, ' ( Our king is perishing 
for water; he is desirous for the waters of Bethle- 
hem. ' ' There were the hosts of the Philistines in 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 167 

the way, but those three men went, in love for 
David, and broke down the host of the Philistines; 
they filled their bottles with the sweet water, came 
back again and cleaned out that camp and brought 
the water to David. David said, ' ' Where did you 
get the water ?' ' They said, "It is water from the 
well at Bethlehem." I do not know whether to 
admire most the love of these men for David or the 
devotion of David to his God. He poured it all out 
as a libation before the L,ord, as something too pre- 
cious for him. to drink, though his parched tongue 
was swollen in his head. He said, u It is the blood of 
these men and I can not drink it. ' ' Great is the 
power of love. ' ' The love of Christ constraineth 
me, ' ' said Paul. Dear friends, if we love Him, we 
will dare the Philistines, we will seek to refresh 
the heart of our King, by bringing sinners to Him. 
L,et us act, impelled by this great motive and we 
shall satisfy Him. 

Mark vi. 31. "And he said unto them, Come 
ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest 
a while; for there were many coming and going, 
and they had no leisure so much as to eat. ' ' The 
disciples had been working very hard, they were 
doing so much public work they had not time 
to take their proper food; and the devil knew 
this was one way to neutralize their work; he 
knew if he could prevent the disciples from 
taking food, they would become weak and not 



1 68 Spiritual Life. 

be able to do their work. Jesus guarded against 
such a mistake; He said, u Come into a desert 
place and rest a while. ' ' It was no desert when He 
was with them ; the greenest glade becomes a desert 
when He is absent, but the driest spot becomes a 
refreshing place when the L/ord is there. ' ' Come 
into a desert place and rest a while. ' ' They went 
into the cave with Jesus; they came out refreshed 
and ready for work. When Peter and John in 
Acts iv. 12 spake before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish 
counsellors said that they should no more talk in 
the name of Jesus. But "when they saw the bold- 
ness of Peter and John and perceived that they were 
unlearned and ignorant men," they took knowl- 
edge of them that they had been with Jesns. That 
was the explanation to the unbelievers; they could 
not have known it on any other principle. These 
disciples had been in the cave with Jesus, they had 
been in the desert with Jesus, and the unbelievers 
took knowledge of it that they had been with 
Him. They recognized the Spirit of Christ in 
them, and upon them. 

General Gordon, known as " Chinese Gordon," 
one of the most remarkable Christians of the nine- 
teenth century, spent an hour every morning with 
God in prayer, and there was not an officer in the 
army who would dare to disturb him at that hour. 
He placed a white handkerchief at his tent door, and 
a message from Parliament, a message from his 



Communion with Jesus Christ. 169 

Queen could not reach him at that hour. Gordon's 
directions were of such a nature that no officer 
would dare to intrude as long as that white hand- 
kerchief was pinned there. Bvery man in the 
army knew that Gordon was alone with God. He 
came out thereafter with his face like the face of a 
lion, ready for the business of the day. Oh, what 
a man he was ! I do not know of any two men of 
the present century who v/ere so much alike as the 
late Stonewall Jackson and the late General Gordon; 
men who were not only humane but intensely 
spiritual. These were men who walked with Jesus 
Christ, whose faces were like the faces of lions and 
whose feet were swift as the roes upon the moun- 
tains. Why cannot we poor pigmies have a little 
of their courage ? Why cannot we have a little 
of their power ? We can ; if like these men we 
walk with God. 

No amount of pleasure, no acquisition of wealth, 
no success in business can be an equivalent for the 
loss of communion with the Son of God. Oh ! 
friends, lessen your pleasures, limit your business, 
accumulate a smaller fortune, and give more of 
your uninterrupted time to companionship with the 
King of kings, until you shall catch the whisper of 
His love, and become filled with the power of His 
inspiring irresistible Spirit. 




IX. 

REDEMPTION AS TAUGHT BY MOSES. 

OME one has well said that ' ( redemption 
is the science and song of eternity." 
As a science there can be none more 
deeply interesting and important to us. 
God and angels, men and devils, all play a part in 
it; and when our physical sciences end, this divine 
science will continue to be the subject of inquiry 
and of praise. In the ages to come God will show 
forth the glories of the redemptive plan, and the 
exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness to- 
ward us through Jesus Christ. (Bph. ii. 7.) 

There are two parallel lines running throughout 
the whole of God's word : (1) the sinner's indebt- 
edness to moral law, and his consequent bondage 
under its curse; (2) the release effected by the L,ord 
Jesus Christ, and the sinner's rescue from all bond- 
age resulting from his sin. 

These doctrinal truths are readily discovered in 
the books of Moses, in which so fully Christ is 
preached. See L,uke xxiv. 27, 44; John v. 46; 
John i. 45. Some of the prophetical utterances of 
Moses are directly applied to Christ. Deut. xviii. 

15; Acts iii. 22, 23. There are many other direct 

(170) 



Redemption as taught by Moses. 171 

references to Christ, as Gen. iii. 15. Gen. xlix. 
10, 24; Nnm. xxiv. 19; Exodus iii. 14, etc. The 
whole Jewish ritual was a finger-board pointing 
directly to a coming Redeemer, and in the dim 
twilight patriarchs and prophets read and believed 
the wondrous story thus announced. The harps 
of the faithful resounded with joyful notes, as their 
lips gave utterance to prophetic songs of future re- 
demption, prefigured to them in every earthly de- 
liverance they had experienced. With the brighter 
shining of that light, it is clearer still to us that 
the inspired pages of these early books are fragrant 
with the Redeemer's name. 

I. Christ as Redeemer is typically set forth in the 
books of Moses. 

1. In the redemption of the poor relative. 
u And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by 

thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax 
poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or so- 
journer by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's 
family: after that he is sold he may be redeemed 
again ; one of his brethren may redeem him : either 
his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or 
any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family 
may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem 
himself. Lev. xxv. 47-49. 

2. In the redemption of the inheritance. 

"If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold 
away some of his possession, and if any of his kin 



172 Spiritual Life. 

come to redeem it, then shall lie redeem that which 
his brother sold." Lev. xxv. 25. 

3. In avenging injuries done to the next of kin. 
' ' The revenger of blood himself shall slay the 

murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay 
him. . . . But if the slayer shall at any time come 
without the border of the city of his refuge, whither 
he was fled; and the revenger of blood find him 
without the borders of the city of his refuge, and 
the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not 
be guilty of blood." (Num. xxxv. 19, 26, 27.) 

The revenger of blood was the Goel or kinsman- 
redeemer. 

4. In raising up a seed which would perpetuate 
the family name and keep alive in the widowed 
heart the hope of redemption through the coming 
Messiah. 

' ' If brethren dwell together, and one of them 
die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall 
not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's 
brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him 
to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's 
brother unto her. And it shall be, that the first- 
born which she beareth shall succeed in the name 
of his brother which is dead, that his name be not 
put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take 
his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up 
to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's 
brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name 



Redemption as taught by Moses. 173 

in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my hus- 
band's brother. Then the elders of his city shall 
call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to 
it, and say, I like not to take her; Then shall his 
brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the 
elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit 
in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be 
done unto that man that will not build up his 
brother's house. And his name shall be called in 
Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. ' ' 
Deut. xxv. 5-10. 

II. The Redeemer y s. qualifications were three- 
fold : — 

1. Relationship must exist between the redeemer 
and the party to be redeemed. 

2. The Goel or redeemer must have resources to 
pay the ransom demanded, and ability to rescue 
from illegal power. 

3. There must be willingness on the part of the 
redeemer to fill the office; redemption on his part 
must be purely voluntary. 

How completely the Lord Jesus fulfils what was 
thus typified and predicted of Him. 

He is next of kin, nearer to us than angels. 
(Heb. ii. 14, 17.) He has all power to ransom and 
rescue. (Matt, xxviii. 20 ; Heb. vii. 24.) And He 
has proved His willingness. (John x. 17, 18; Heb. 
x. 5—7.) He redeems us to an inheritance; He re- 
deems the inheritance for us; He avenges our 



174 Spiritual Life. 

wrongs; and in Him believers become the spiritual 
seed — children of God. 

Christ, as the coming Redeemer, is announced in 
Gen. iii. 15: "I will put enmity between thee and 
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, 
it (or He) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
bruise his heel. ' ' The ransom aspect, as well as 
the rescue side of redemption, is predicted here. 
The bruising the heel of the woman's seed inti- 
mates the ransom payment through Christ's suffer- 
ings unto death. The bruising of Satan's head 
speaks of his overthrow, and man's rescue, by the 
great Deliverer. Satan was the source of man's 
ruin; the seed of the woman is the agent of man's 
redemption. 

The Iyord Jesus is our Goel — the avenger of our 
wrongs. It was in this relation the patriarch Jacob 
spake of Him on his dying bed, when blessing the 
sons of Joseph. u The Angel which redeemed me 
from all evil bless the lads." — Gen. xlviii. 16. 
Christ was known to the patriarchs as the avenging 
or redeeming Angel. The name Goel was given 
officially to the kinsman who avenged injuries. 
The devil is the man-slayer from the beginning 
(John viii. 44), for whom no effectual refuge opened 
its gates. The divine Goel pursued him to his own 
domain, and bruised the serpent's head. He came 
to unbind the works of the devil, and "through 
death He destroyed him that hath the power of 



Redemption as taught by Moses. 175 

death." (1 John iii. 8; Heb. ii. 14.) This heroic 
representation of Christ thrilled the hearts of pa- 
triarchs, prophets, and apostles, and found expres- 
sion in their writings. He spoiled principalities 
and powers, and made an open show of them tri- 
umphing over them in Himself. (Col. ii. 15.) 
The petition in our Lord's prayer, "Deliver us 
from evil," is literally, " Rescue us from the Evil 
One." 

God gave promise to Israel of deliverance from 
the Egyptian bondage by which they were sorely 
oppressed, also that He would bring them into the 
land promised to Abraham and his seed for an 
heritage. Exodus xii. gives the history of that de- 
liverance — redemption negatively ; shelter from 
judgment through the blood of a substituted lamb 
(Ex. xii. 13) Redemption positively ; the Lord 
bringing them out of Egypt. (Ex. xii. 42.) It is 
again the history, and the type of ransom and res- 
cue. (Ex. xiii. 3.) Then follows the song of re- 
demption, ' ' Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the 
people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided 
them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." 
(Ex. xv. 13.) 

The primary idea of the Scripture word " re- 
demption ' ' is that of loosing, releasing, or libera- 
ting by the payment of a ransom. The great ob- 
ject of redemption, as before intimated, is the re- 
lease of men from under captivity to the law of 



176 Spiritual Life. 

sin, and from under the dominion of the Prince of 
the power of the air. 

Exodus xiii. speaks of the consecration following 
redemption, and this is ever the order of truth in 
the gospel. In v. 13 we notice the ass, the rep- 
resentative unclean animal, and man, linked to- 
gether. (Numbers xviii. 15.) Both deserve a com- 
mon doom, but both may be redeemed. If not 
redeemed, they come under judgment. " And 
every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a 
lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou 
shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of men 
among thy children shalt thou redeem. " How 
strikingly the lamb dying instead of the ass typi- 
fies Christ our substitute dying for us. This aspect 
of redemption by substitution is to be guarded with 
jealous care. The old Socinian idea, that redemp- 
tion is effected by an infusion of grace enabling the 
recipient to outgrow sin, is not without its advo- 
cates, who speak of redemption by ransom as a 
metaphor, or figure of speech. That redemption 
has the sense of release by purchase in the Old 
Testament, is readily proved as for instance : c ' And 
if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, 
she shall not go out as the men-servants do. If 
she please not her master, who hath betrothed 
her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: 
to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have 
no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with 



Redemption as taught by Moses. 






her. ' ' Ex. xxi. 7,8. u To sell ' ' implies pur- 
chase, and represents the ransom aspect of re- 
demption. Ransom and atonement are identified. 
This is a rich passage, and worthy of much 
thought. ' ' And the Lord spake unto Moses, 
saying, When thou takest the sum of the children 
of Israel after their number, then shall they give 
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, 
when thou numberest them ; that there be no 
plague among them, when thou numberest them. 
This they shall give, every one that passeth among 
them that are numbered, half a shekel after the 
shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs), 
an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. 
Every one that passeth among them that are num- 
bered, from twenty years old and above, shall give 
an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not 
give more, and the poor shall not give less than 
half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the 
Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. And 
thou shalt take the atonement money of the chil- 
dren of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service 
of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may 
be a memorial unto the children of Israel before 
the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. " 
Ex. xxx. 11-16. The redemption of the children 
of Israel in this particular corresponds with our 
experience of a personal appropriation of Christ in 
the relation of Redeemer. Atonement was the 



178 Spiritual Life. 

ground of service, and all stood equally there — the 
rich and poor having an equal share in redemption 
privileges. 

In Leviticus xxv. the Sabbatical year, and the 
year of Jubilee, typify an age to come when Christ 
our Redeemer shall be known as the Restorer of 
the land to the rightful heirs of Abraham. Doubt- 
less the characteristics of the year of Jubilee illus- 
trate the blessings of the gospel now, but as a type 
it can only be fulfilled when the Redeemer will re- 
turn to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Ja- 
cob. Rom. xi. 26. 

Redemption was the purpose of God of old, or 
ever the earth was. Before sin came into being, 
or the old serpent entered Eden with his hellish 
plot, God anticipated both the one and the other. 
His counsels antedate man's ruin, and what His in- 
finite wisdom planned His glorious power achieved. 
Ere the hills were formed, or the mountains brought 
forth, redemption's science was mastered by the 
Divine mind. Ere He called light into existence, 
or gave to the sea His decree, His more glorious 
decrees of love and mercy toward a future fallen 
race were perfected in heaven. The earth was 
made to form a theatre whereon God's character 
should be fully displayed in the work of redemp- 
tion, and the world is yet to witness the blessed 
consummation of earth's restoration through the 
personal agency of a reigning Christ. The pale 



Redemption as taught by Moses. ijg 

light of redemption's gospel fell on Eden as our 
first parents stood self-accused before the majesty 
of God. But in that light they had hope. Its 
brighter glimmerings were caught on the peaks of 
types, sacrifices, and prophetic revelations. The 
day dawn had come as the rugged Baptist pro- 
claimed the presence of the I^amb of God. The 
sun had fully risen on Bethlehem and Gethsemane 
and Calvary; but dark shadows arising from man's 
sin and God's wrath obscured its shining. Never- 
theless, when Pentecost had fully come, a bright 
ray from the cross had fallen upon the guilty city 
where our Lord was crucified, and sinners redeemed 
by His blood rejoiced in the light. But the clouds 
have not all withdrawn. Man is still opposed to 
God, and Satan is this world's prince. Evil men 
and seducers wax worse and worse ; iniquity 
abounds; the love of many grows cold; the mys- 
tery of iniquity is at work; the mother of harlots 
and abominations of the earth grows more haughty 
in her claims and prerogatives, while boasted 
science flaunts her defiant banner in the face of 
revelation : the attitude of the world is enmity 
with God; millions of our race are yet unevange- 
lized, and nature herself is weary of the curse 
which becomes more oppressive. But courage, ye 
believers in the prophetic story ! Hark to the foot- 
falls of the returning Redeemer. What He has 
purchased by blood He will surely redeem by 



180 Spiritual Life. 

power. All nature is consecrated by the awful 
sweat of the garden, and the tragic passion of the 
cross, and soon will she be disenthralled from the 
bondage of the oppressor. The Redeemer Himself 
will appear to fulfill the promises, and justify His 
purposes. The enchanter's wand shall be broken, 
the potent spell of hell's magician destroyed; the 
serpent shall be hurled from his throne; nations 
will leap into liberty; the scattered tribes of Israel 
and Judah shall be re-united and restored ; the dark 
clouds will forever vanish, and the earth will be 
filled with the light of the Redeemer's glory. 
Blest day, all hail I Blest Saviour, come! Let re- 
demption's work, typified in the Pentateuch and 
fulfilled on Calvary, soon be consummated to the 
eternal praise of Thy name. Thy waiting saints 
hear the cry, ' ' Behold, I come quickly, ' ' and 
promptly respond, u Even so, come, Lord Jesus. ' * 




X. 



OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST. 

" Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider 
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."— Hebrews 
iii. i. 

HK priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ 
is a subject of paramount importance. 
There is an interval between the Cross 
and the Crown which He fills up in the 
heavens, while the Spirit fills up the same interval 
in the church. We may inquire what is our L,ord 
doing for us during that whole period of time be- 
tween His ascension and His return again ? You 
who have read the Pentateuch with careful obser- 
vation will have noticed how frequently a system 
of doubles is employed in the types of our L,ord. 
For instance, on the great day of atonement there 
were two goats: one goat could not shadow forth 
the great scheme of redemption, which includes 
both the death and the resurrection of the Iyord 
Jesus Christ. No one animal could set forth this 
double aspect of gospel truth. We find also, in 
connection with the leper, two birds, one slain, and 
the other dipped in its blood, and let fly into the 
open fields, setting forth, I believe, the two-fold 

(181) 



182 Spiritual Life. 

feature of the gospel, that Christ who died for us 
has also passed for us into the heavens with His 
own blood. And so when we come to representa- 
tive men, there are two, Moses and Aaron, the 
apostle, and the high priest. The apostle was one 
sent from God to men, commissioned to declare the 
truth of God to men, representing God to men. 
The priest was one going from men to God, to 
communicate with God on their behalf, and to 
represent men in the presence of God. And there- 
fore these two men typify the double feature of the 
work of our L,ord Jesus Christ. Moses was the 
apostle sent forth from God charged with a royal 
commission. He was the prophet constantly com- 
municating the mind of God to Israel. Aaron the 
priest was the one who interceded with God on 
behalf of the people. Our Lord Jesus is both 
apostle (or prophet) and priest. "Wherefore, holy 
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, con- 
sider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, 
Christ Jesus." The Shiloh or Sent One came forth 
from God. He came forth from the Father into 
the world. He came to represent God to men; 
and, having fulfilled perfectly the apostolic office, 
He entered upon His priestly ministry within the 
veil, to transact business with God on behalf of 
men. Apostle and Priest! He is the subject for 
our consideration, as well as the supreme object of 
our adoration to-day. 



Our Great High Priest. 183 

In the 4th chapter of Hebrews, the 14th verse, 
we read, ( ' Seeing then that we have a great High 
Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the 
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." See- 
ing that we have such a great High Priest. One 
of the characteristics of Christianity is its absolute- 
ness; it is positive, definite; it is never vague nor 
uncertain. "WK have a great High Priest!" 
This characteristic feature of certainty pervades all 
gospel doctrine. We know, and we have; we 
know, and we possess. There are persons in our 
day who deem it presumption on the part of any 
one to claim spiritual knowledge, or acquaintance 
with spiritual things. According to their philoso- 
phy, it is the very acme of intellectual culture not 
to know. But if they confess their own lamentable 
ignorance of spiritual truth, they have no right to 
assume that others are alike ignorant. A blind 
man who denies the existence of sunlight is im- 
pertinent in assuming that all others are blind like 
himself. We would never trouble ourselves with 
these agnostics, " proud boasters," were it not that 
they constantly insist that others are as blind as 
themselves, and as uncertain as themselves regard- 
ing matters pertaining to salvation. The Christian 
believer ought to be perfectly assured of eternal 
life, of his home in heaven, of his great High 
Priest. This is our boast in the Lord: " We know 
that we have eternal life;" we haves, great High 



1 84 Spiritual Life. 

Priest: His name is Jesus, Son of God. We know 
He is in the heavens, within the veil, making in- 
tercession for us. "Wherefore, holy brethren, 
partakers of .the heavenly calling, consider the 
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus." 

L Nearly all human religions acknowledge the 
necessity of priesthood. It is a very singular fact 
that when the white man enters for the first time 
into the haunts of the pagan he finds priesthood 
there, as if man, in his most barbarous state, was 
ever conscious of his unfitness in himself to ap- 
proach Deity. Fallen, sinning man, must know 
that there is a great gulf fixed between himself 
and the Divine Being whom he seeks to worship. 
And because of this innate consciousness of guilt 
in the human heart, Ritualism, whether Papal or 
Anglican, takes advantage of it, and supplies us 
with a counterfeit priesthood. You remember how 
Job, realizing his own personal sinfulness, cried 
out, ' ' Neither is there any daysman betwixt us 
that might lay his hand upon us both." (Job ix. 
33.) There is a great distance between the holy 
God and sinful man. The sinner cries out for an 
arbitrator, an umpire, to lay hands upon both, and 
so effect a reconciliation. The Apostle Paul re- 
sponds to such a cry in his 1st Epistle to Timothy, 
2d chapter and 5th verse: u For there is one God, 
and one Mediator between God and men, the Man 



Our Great High Priest, 185 

Christ Jesus. n He who is God, our Saviour, is 
also the Man Christ Jesus, qualified, as Daysman, 
to lay hands upon both. Jesus is the Arbitrator, 
placing one hand upon the throne of the Eternal, 
and the other hand upon the guilty sinner, thus 
bringing both together into reconciliation and 
union. L,et us thank our God, beloved, that we 
have a great High Priest. 

As all religions acknowledge the necessity of 
priesthood, the Christian religion likewise acknowl- 
edges its necessity, and, in fact, if there is no 
priest, there can be no assurance, no pardon, no 
reconciliation with God. The title " Priest" means 
' ( Sacrificer. ' ' It implies the offering of a victim 
to God, and certain results flowing therefrom. 
The word is very often abused and misapplied. 
Those who cry out against the sacrificial priest- 
hood of Jesus Christ, who denounce the idea of 
sacrifice as being altogether repugnant to our re- 
fined senses, use Bible terms, and steal from the 
phraseology of Scripture many of its glowing 
terms. Men of intellectual thought, forsooth! are 
u priests of nature." What a misnomer! The 
term implies sacrifice, and if no sacrifice, no priest. 

The priest must present sacrifice. If Jesus 
Christ assumes the office of Priest, He must present 
an acceptable offering. ' ' For every high priest is 
ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it 
is of necessitv that this Man have somewhat also 



1 86 Spiritual Life. 

to offer. ' ' (Hebrews viii. 3.) What is that offering ? 
' ' For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the 
ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti- 
fieth to the purifying of the flesh : How much more 
shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal 
Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works to serve the living 
God?" (Hebrews ix. 13, 14.) Here is something 
which never before took place in the history of the 
world — the Priest offering Himself as a. sacrifice unto 
God. This Man who must have somewhat to offer 
offered Himself without spot to God, that, through 
that offering, our consciences might be purged 
from dead works to serve the living God. Now, 
no human priest presenting a sacrifice for sin has 
any assurance that his offering is accepted, but not 
so our Priest. If it was not an acceptable offering, 
He would remain in Joseph's tomb; but " the L,ord 
is risen indeed, and has appeared unto Simon." 
Yea, He has gone up on high, and is now in the 
divine presence, on our behalf. We know that it 
is not only an acceptable offering, but a sufficient 
sin-offering for us. There needs no more offering 
for sin. Away, then, with your elevation of the 
host! Away with any other pretended sacrifice to 
make reconciliation with God, or atone for human 
sin. It is preposterous and blasphemous. This 
Man purged away sin by the sacrifice of himself, 
so that it is all-sufficient and available to us. The 



Our Great High Priest. 187 

guilty sinner, by faith, appropriates the sacrifice of 
Jesus Christ to himself, and can say, ' ' He loved 
me, and gave Himself for me. ' ' 

II. We now inquire — Was our Lord personally 
qualified to assume the office of priest f There were 
certain qualifications demanded under the cere- 
monial law. Every man of the seed of Aaron could 
not enter the office. You will find that there were 
certain requirements, as, for instance, that the priest 
must be physically perfect. If any man had a 
broken hand, a broken nose, or broken foot, or if 
there was any distortion or any blemish in his body, 
though he was qualified by birth for the priesthood, 
these physical infirmities disqualified him, and he 
could not offer sacrifice. We read of the Lord Jesus 
Christ in the 7th chapter of the Hebrews and 26th 
verse, ( ' For such an high priest became us, who is 
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, 
and made higher than the heavens. ' ' Not a blemish 
on Him, no distortion or disqualification. He was 
morally fitted, in His own personal life, to enter the 
priestly office. Then, again, the priest must be per- 
fectly human, " For every high priest taken from 
among men, is ordained for men, in things pertain- 
ing to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacri- 
fices for sins." (Heb. v. 1.) An angel could not be 
a priest. There is nothing in common between 
angel nature and human nature. ' ' Forasmuch then 
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 



1 88 Spiritual Life. 

He also Himself likewise took part of the same; 
that through death, He might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil." (Heb. ii. 14.) 
He was born of a woman and became perfectly 
human, and in His human life He became qualified 
as priest. Furthermore, the priest must be a man 
of compassion. A stoic would not do. A man who 
had not the ordinary feelings of humanity, who 
could not sympathize with those in sorrow, would 
be set aside as morally disqualified. We find that 
in all things it behooved our L,ord to be made like 
unto His brethren. He is a merciful and faithful 
high priest in things pertaining to God. He is 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His 
compassions never fail. He is a sympathizing 
priest, boundless in pity, infinite in tenderness. 
No priest could elect himself to the office. Israel's 
high priest received a distinct call from God : he 
did not enter the office as having a claim to it. So 
we read, ' ' And no man taketli this honor unto 
himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron. ' ' 
(Heb. v. 4.) So of Jesus : " Called of God an high 
priest, after the order of Melchisedec," (v. 10). 
He has therefore right and title to enter the priest- 
hood, and there He stands to-day unchallenged, 
unquestioned. He still can say, c ' The prince of 
this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." (John 
xiv. 30.) We observe, then, dear brethren and 
friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ is qualified in 



Our Great High Priest. 189 

every way to be our priest. He answered all the 
demands of the law, receiving all honor from the 
Father. ' ' Seeing, then, that we have a great High 
Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the 
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. ' ' 

III. We pass on to speak of the place where He 
exercises His priestly ministry. I have referred to 
that already, but I wish to have it fully established 
in your minds. When He was here, in the days of 
His flesh, He fulfilled the office of teacher, teach- 
ing and preaching glad tidings ; making known the 
things of God to men. But as the priest of old, on 
the day of atonement, went within the veil with 
the blood of the sin offering, so, when our L,ord 
had presented His offering, He passed within the 
veil, and He is now in the presence of God for us. 
We read in the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the 
Bphesians, ver. 19, 20, u And what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to usward who believe, ac- 
cording to the working of His mighty power, which 
He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from 
the dead, and, set Him at His own right hand in 
the heavenly places ?' ' The 1st chapter of Hebrews, 
verse 3 : u Who being the brightness of His glory, 
and the express image of His person, and uphold- 
ing all things by the word of His power, when He 
had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the 
right hand of the Majesty on high." Again, in 
8th chapter of Hebrews and the 1st verse : " We 



190 Spiritual Life. 

have such an High Priest , who is set on the right 
hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." 
See the 9th chapter, 24th verse: "For Christ is not 
entered into the holy places made with hands, which 
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, 
now to appear in the presence of God for us." 
Then we find in the 10th chapter, verses 11, 12, 
the following words, "And every high priest 
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes 
the same sacrifices, which can never take away 
sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacri- 
fice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of 
God. ' ' I want you to notice the attitude of Jesus 
Christ in heaven. We are told that when the 
priests came into the sanctuary every day to per- 
form the service of God, there was no seat provided 
for them in the Holy Place. They always stood to 
perform the service of God. There was no seat 
provided for the high priest in the Holiest of all ; 
there was but one seat there, the mercy-seat, occu- 
pied by Jehovah Himself. His throne is one of 
mercy and grace, but there was no seat for the 
ministering priest. ' ' Every priest standeth daily 
ministering :" the work was always incomplete ; 
' ' but this Man, when He had offered one sacrifice 
for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God. ' ' 
Atonement is made, and He has a right to His seat. 
He is seated there in heavenly places. He finished 
the work of atonement, and made an end of sin. 



Our Great High Priest. 191 

He purged away sin and has presented an offering 
which, is available for the sinner, and effectual in 
securing our abundant pardon; and having made 
atonement He is now presenting it within the veil. 
There He presents the results of that finished work 
in the presence of God on our behalf. Thus recon- 
ciliation is effected between God and the believing 
sinner. This, then, is my plea : u O God, I am a 
sinner; Christ died for me, and has taken His own 
blood into heaven, and having respect to that blood 
Thou dost accept me." Oh, friends, we are recon- 
ciled to God by the death of His Son. 

IV. Still further, He is presenting our worship 
with acceptance. My dear brethren, this is a con- 
soling thought. Had we no priest in heaven as 
the medium of our worship, we never could worship 
God acceptably; our holiest performances are un- 
clean, our noblest efforts are marred with sin. Just 
as when the priest of old came into the Holy Place 
and presented the incense from off the golden altar, 
before the I^ord, so Jesus, who is our golden altar, 
presents our worship, which ascends from that altar, 
and the altar sanctifieth the gift. Our gift is sanc- 
tified and accepted as it ascends from Himself. 
You know our prayers are but stammering utter- 
ances; our praises and devotions are poor at best; 
but see how He gathers them together into the 
golden bowl, perfuming them with the fragrant 
incense of His own merits, and so presenting them 



192 Spiritual Life. 

acceptably to our God and Father. Prayer is 
offered in the name of Jesus ; praise is presented in 
the name of Jesus; the consecration of our lives 
ascends to heaven through the merits of our Priest. 
Here, then, is where a person of Unitarian senti- 
ment makes the fatal mistake; he hopes to enter 
into the presence of the God of nature, the God of 
providence, the Supreme Deity, and stand there 
offering gifts: but, vain man, his richest gifts are 
not accepted by a holy God, save through the 
medium of the Priest. If you recognize the priest- 
hood of Christ, you acknowledge His sacrifice. 
Then you are no more Unitarian : you are a Chris- 
tian believer in the L,ord Jesus Christ. Again, be- 
sides presenting our worship, He presents the wor- 
shipper. The priest of old carried the names of 
the tribes upon the breast-plate and on the shoulder- 
stones, thus bearing up the whole nation of Israel 
upon shoulders and heart. So our priest is pre- 
senting us to-day. Every saint is in the same 
acceptance always in Jesus Christ. You may to-day 
have a more vivid realization and appreciation of 
that acceptance ; to-morrow, your mind may be dull 
and clouded: you may not enjoy the experience 
of peace in your soul, and you may not be so keenly 
spiritual as you are to-day, but your acceptance is 
the same, beloved friends, and must always be the 
same, if you are accepted at all. 

Aaron, Israel's priest, wore around his head a 



Our Great High Priest. 193 

mitre, and on that was placed a crown on which 
was engraved, "Holiness unto the Iyord," that they 
might be always accepted. So Jesus Christ stands 
before God for us, and we stand in Him, and God 
is looking at us in the Son, saying, admiringly, 
' i Thou art all fair, my love : there is no spot in 
Thee. ' ' Thus it is that the Iyord Jesus Christ pre- 
sents us in acceptance, in righteousness, in the 
presence of God. 

What else is He doing for us ? As our Priest is 
the medium through whom our prayers and worship 
ascend to the Father, so He is the channel through 
whom the blessing of the Father comes to us. God 
is ever blessing us for the sake of His Son, and 
through His Son. We praise God from whom all 
blessings flow, because of the priesthood of Jesus 
Christ. He is always meriting the blessing on our 
behalf, and in that sense we are always meriting the 
blessing. By His merit, through the medium of 
the Priest, grace upon grace, and ' ' the supply of 
the spirit of Jesus, ' ' comes unhindered to our be- 
lieving souls. How glorious for us is His work! 
Seeing we have such an High Priest within the 
veil, let us rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. 

V. I wish to sum up by giving you a three-fold 
representatioii of His priestly work. 

(1) Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and 
man. He is an Advocate with the Father; and an 
13 



194 Spiritual Life. 

Intercessor on behalf of the saints. A mediator is 
one who opens up the way of access, and keeps it 
open, to effect reconciliation between two contend- 
ing parties. As mediator, that aspect of His 
priesthood is for the unconverted as well as for the 
believer; it is for you, sinner, to-day. He has 
opened a door of access to God, and through His 
blood He keeps it open for you, Come then to 
God through the Priest, through the sacrifice, 
(i Tim. iii. 3-5.) 

(2) But the other parts of the priesthood are 
limited to believers. He is not an advocate for the 
sinner, but for the saint. The advocate is the same 
as Comforter, or Paraclete. There are many things 
implied in the advocacy of Jesus Christ. As advo- 
cate He meets the accuser, for an advocate implies 
an accuser. Here, then, is a startling fact. The 
accuser of the brethren, Satan, the god of this 
world, has access to heaven. He accuses us before 
the Father. Remember, he does not enter heaven 
as a subject of it, but he enters the court of equity 
as an accuser goes before the Judge to testify against 
transgressors. The devil has a foothold in the 
heavenly court. Here is his advantage; you and 
I have failed as Christians. If you reflect upon 
your life since your conversion, you wonder will 
you ever be finally saved ? The devil takes advan- 
tage of our infirmities, of our sins of jealousy, envy, 
evil speaking, of the bitterness of our heart, and he 



Our Great High Priest. 195 

flies to the court above, demanding, - ' O thou Judge 
of men, who canst but abhor iniquity, see these 
people : how can they enter heaven ? How can they 
enter Thy presence, and have communion with 
Thee ?' ' So he brings these accusations against us 
there. Nor can we deny these charges; we must 
acknowledge our guilt. What can be done when 
the accuser brings forward charges which cannot be 
denied before a righteous God ? Friends, look into 
that court; behold one standing there at the right 
hand of the Judge. Who is He ? He has the scars 
of the thorny crown upon His brow. Who is He ? 
He has the marks of the nails upon His hands, the 
mark of the spear in His side. He stands present- 
ing His pierced body in heaven's court of justice. 
Hear Him thunder, u Who shall lay anything to 
the charge of God's elect ? Bring the charge against 
Me. ' ' Hallelujah ! We have an advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. See, there 
He is with His own blood presenting it on our 
behalf; it covers our sins, and the devil is baffled 
in yonder court. Does he press the charges ? Even 
so, we have our Surety, our Representative, our 
Priest, who represents us so faithfully and justly 
that the devil is overcome; he finds nothing in our 
Lord. But mark you, he rushes from the court- 
room, and, charging the conscience of the believer 
with like accusations, would fain drive us to despair. 
Grace has, however, made provision, and we over- 



196 Spiritital Life. 

come him by the word of our testirnoiiy and by the 
blood of the Lamb. The very blood which drove 
him out of heaven will drive him from the court of 
conscience, baffled and overcome. Oh, how it be- 
comes us to keep that blood in mind, and to remem- 
ber that we ever have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the Righteous. (1 John ii. 2.) 

(3) What else is He doing? He is making in- 
tercession for the saints. (Heb. vii. 25-27.) I have 
sometimes heard it said from the pulpit, ' ' Come to 
Christ, He is praying in heaven for you;" but there 
is no such teaching in the Bible. In the 17 th of 
John we read, ' ' I pray for these, I pray not for the 
world." If He prayed for the world, the world 
would be converted; the prayers of this David 
would be answered. Every prayer of His finds 
prompt and glad response. God holds nothing 
back from Him. Were He praying for the whole 
world, universalism would be true. But He limits 
His intercessions. * ' I pray for those whom Thou 
hast given Me, that they may be one." In this 
17th of John, in this intercession of Jesus Christ, 
we have the most unselfish prayer on record. There 
is but this prayer for Himself, " And now, O Father, 
glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with 
Thee before the world was. ' ' He then prays for 
His disciples that they may be kept and sanctified; 
and for all believers, to the end of time, that they 
may be united in one, sanctified, and preserved. 



Our Great High Priest. 197 

1 ' Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast 
given Me may be with me where I am; that they 
may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, 
for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the 
world." Such is the character of our Lord's in- 
tercession during the period of His priestly ministry 
within the veil. It is a prayer of anticipation; 
He had finished the work given Him to do. Oh, 
how dependent we are on His priesthood. If He 
failed in that priesthood to-day, alas, friends, our 
salvation could not be consummated; but He will 
finish the work of the priesthood, even as He 
finished the work of the atonement, and when that 
ministry is brought to a glorious climax in the final 
salvation of the church, then will He come forth 
to fulfil that other office, His kingly office, and 
sway His sceptre over the nations of the earth, for 
' ' the kingdoms of this world shall become the 
kingdoms of our L,ord, and of His Christ, and He 
shall reign for ever and ever. " " Wherefore, holy 
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, con- 
sider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, 
Christ Jesus. ' ' 






THE BELIEVER'S BLESSED HOPE — OUR LORD'S 
SECOND COMING. 

HERE are two events connected with the 
Christian believer's hope. Paul in his 
letter to Titus refers to the first of these 
in the glowing words ' ' Looking for the 
blessed Hope and appearing of the glory of our 
great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." (R. V.) The 
return to our earth in personal glory of Jesus Mes- 
siah is the first event included in the blessed Hope. 
In Paul's speech at Jerusalem before the council 
we find the second event thus stated : ' ' Men and 
brethren I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of 
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called 
in question. ' ' Acts xxiii. 6. Again in his defence be- 
fore the governor Felix, Paul uttered these memo- 
rable words. ' ' But this I confess unto thee, that 
after the way which they call heresy, so worship I 
the God of my fathers, believing all things which 
are written in the law and the prophets, and have 
hope toward God, which they themselves also 
allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, 
both of the just and unjust." Acts xxiv. 14, 15. 
In his speech of vindication before Herod 

(198) 



The Believer" s Blessed Hope. 199 

Agrippa we find the divinely instructed apostle re- 
ferring again to this hope in the sublime statement : 
"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of 
the promise made of God unto our fathers. Unto 
which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving 
God day and night hope to come. For which 
hope's sake King Agrippa, I am accused of the 
Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
with you that God should raise the dead. ' ' Acts 
xxvi. 6-8. 

Once more when Paul had reached Rome, he 
summoned his Jewish brethren, some of whom 
were already believers, to hear his plea, that ' ' for 
the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." 
Acts xxviii. 20. 

Clearly, then, Resurrection was the old Testa- 
ment hope, held by all Pharisees who accepted the 
law, the prophets and the Psalms, but denied by 
the Sadducees who placed reason above the inerrant 
Scriptures. Paul, converted, enlightened, instructed 
by the infallible Spirit, held with even greater tena- 
city than formerly to that blessed hope of a literal, 
bodily and glorious resurrection. These, then are 
the joyful anticipations of the true Christian be- 
liever. Waiting in hope for the Son of God from 
heaven, and expecting therewith the full consum- 
mation of our salvation when the departed spirit 
shall be re-united with its own body by resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and in our translation unto 
glory. 



200 Spiritual Life. 

As regards the future, the believer cannot admit 
that human opinions and human speculations are 
conclusive. There is but one infallible, authorita- 
tive source of knowledge concerning the days be- 
fore us, namely, the inspired and absolutely exact 
revelation of God which we call The Holy Scrip- 
tures. 

No true Bible-loving and seriously reverent 
Christian will deny the prophetic features of that 
revelation. Much that is now history was once 
prophecy, and the literal fulfillment of the events 
predicted is the golden key which opens the gate 
of unfulfilled prophecy to the devout and inquiring 
mind. The Spirit shows us things to come be- 
cause he already inspired holy men to write of 
them in the prophetic word. 

L,et us then, with becoming reverence, and glad- 
ness of heart, approach this subject. It is that 
most joyous hope which has impressed and influ- 
enced the church in every age. Will the Lord 
Jesus, the Eternal Word, who appeared once on 
earth, return again and touch its soil with His 
blessed feet? Will He who was born of woman, 
who became the Servant of all, come again in 
Sovereign Majesty and receive from the world the 
homage of universal worship, and the crown of uni- 
versal supremacy ? And shall His sleeping saints be 
raised from the dust of death to the throne of eter- 
nal life ? 



The Believer's Blessed Hope. 201 

I. Chrises own answer. Our first quotation is 
a statement from His own gracious lips. " I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
place for you, I will come again." (John xiv. 2, 3.) 
No one surely will dispute the fact that when Jesus 
said U I go," He meant a personal, literal removal 
of Himself to the Father. The u I " is personal, 
not metaphorical; the u go" is literal, not figura- 
tive. Thus Jesus in His own person departed out 
of the world by ascension to the heavens. So, ac- 
cording to the simplest laws of language, the 
promise "I will come again," must be both per- 
sonal and literal. The ' ' I come, ' ' answers to the 
4 ' I go. ' ' According to this precious promise of 
Jesus, is it not right to expect that some time He 
will again return to earth ? Surely no. past event 
can be construed into a fulfillment of this promise. 
Neither the coming of the Spirit, the destruction 
of Jerusalem, the discovery of America, the birth 
of the Republic; not the progress of the Age, nor 
the event of Death will satisfy the thoughtful mind, 
that in any or all of these occurrences Jesus has 
come. 

He came and died for us; this is love bleeding 
for its beloved. He went on high to prepare an 
abode for us; this is love active for the beloved. 
He will not send a myriad of angels to convey the 
beloved home, but He will come Himself and re- 
ceive His church — His bride to Himself. This is 



202 Spiritual Life. 

love satisfying itself : ' ( That where I am there ye 
may be also." 

II. The Answer of the White-robed Messengers. 
Turn we now to Acts i. 9-1 1. "And when He 
had spoken these things, while they beheld, He 
was taken up. ' ' The first part of His own promise 
was then exactly fulfilled. He was taken up. Had 
He not said, u I go " ? Now hear the heavenly 
messengers address the disciples. ( ' This same 
Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall 
so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go 
into heaven." (v. 11.) How did He ascend ? In 
His human, glorified body. How shall He descend ? 
In like manner. Who ascended? Jesus. Who 
shall descend ? This same Jesus. How was He 
accompanied in His ascension? With a cloud. 
How shall He return ? ' ' And then shall they see 
the Son of Man coming in a cloud. ' ' (L,uke xxi. 
27.) Surely these Scriptures teach on their surface 
that Jesus is coming again personally, visibly, 
gloriously. 

III. The Apostolic Answer. One verse more. 
' ' For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God. " (1 Thess. iv. 16.) Again 
we must admit that this passage refers to our Lord's 
personal return. With what accompaniments did 
He ascend ? ( ' God is gone up with a shout, the 
Lord with a sound of a trumpet." (Ps. xlvii. 5.) 



The Believer' s Blessed Hope. 203 

Thus also shall He return. He is now in heaven 
whither He ascended, and will continue there in 
His priestly mediatorial office until the hour arrives 
when He shall return to claim His own. Then 
shall the dead in Christ rise first, and the living 
saints shall join them in their triumphal procession, 
while they challenge the graves long occupied, but 
now empty: "O death, where is thy sting? 
grave where is thy victory ? Thanks be unto God 
who giveth us the victory through our Iyord Jesus 
Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 55-57.) 

But keeping to the line of thought before us, we 
must not overlook the fact that the I^ord comes 
Himself and not by deputy. This, then, is our 
assured hope. It is not a speculation, not a 
philosophy, not a supposition, not even a calcula- 
tion, but an assurance based on the infallible pro- 
mises of God. Oh, believer, are you tried now ? 
Are you afflicted now ? Are you sorely beset by 
many adversaries ? Is your heart wrung with an- 
guish as you see the wicked prosper and the un- 
godly prevail ? Fear not! L,ift up your head for 
your redemption draweth nigh. Gird up the loins 
of your mind, be sober and hope perfectly for the 
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela- 
tion of Jesus. He will not forget His promises. 
Therefore ' ' unto them* that look for Him shall He 
appear the second time without sin unto salvation. ' ' 
(Heb. ix. 28.) Then shall there be re-union with 
our sainted dead on that day of His glorious Advent. 



204 Spiritual Life. 

IV. The Promised Advent not Death. One of 
our great surprises in connection with this sub- 
ject is, that any thoughtful person should con- 
sider the experience of death, and the event of 
our Lord^s coming one and the same, or even think 
of them as of equal value. Very many say, ' ' Well, 
when I die the L,ord will have come to me. ' ' Now, 
is this not a very perversion of Scripture language ? 
L,et any reader carefully go over a few texts where 
it is said Jesus is coming again, and substitute 
death for that hope. Will he not readily perceive 
the fallacy of the above statement ? As for exam- 
ple : ' ' This same death shall come again. ' ' (Acts 
i. 12.) " Death shall descend from heaven with a 
shout." (i Thess. iv. 16.) "Unto them that 
look for it, shall death appear a second time. (Heb„ 
ix. 28.) "For our conversation is in heaven; 
from whence also we look for death. (Phil. iii. 
20.) "And to wait for death from heaven." (1 
Thess. i. 10.) It would be just as absurd to read 
into such passages any other event, historical, 
ecclesiastical or providential, as that of death. 
Surely the Scriptures are clear enough in their 
literal statement, and conclusive in their designed 
application. This is very important, therefore 
observe : 

1. That there was in the minds of the apostles a 
distinction between the article of death, and the 
advent of Jesus is proved from our L,ord's conver- 



The Believer ] s Blessed Hope. 205 

sation with Simon Peter, as recorded in John xxi. 
18-23. ^ ne Master told him he would die a mar- 
tyr, which led Peter to inquire concerning John, 
1 ' Lord, and what shall this man do ?' ' The an- 
swer of Jesus, " If I will that he tarry till I come," 
led all of the disciples to believe that John would 
not die, but be found still living when their Lord 
returned from heaven. Not indeed that Jesus gave 
any such promise, yet what He did say called out 
from them the fact that in their minds there was a 
broad distinction between death and His return. 

2. But further, this contrast is seen when we 
consider that death is a monster evil, the awful 
penalty of sin (Rom. vi. 23), while the promised 
Advent of Jesus will deliver His people from its 
dread power. (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.) Death is un- 
natural. From this terrible enemy we shrink with 
fear, while with glad hope we long to see the un- 
veiled face of our glorious Lord. Death is a dis- 
solution; a taking down of the tabernacle; a dis- 
robing. For the unclothed state we do not pray, 
as we do for the re-clothed condition. (11 Cor. v. 
4.) Death is a divider. The grim messenger is 
neither softened by tears nor subdued by threats. 
He is independent of bribes, and mocks at every 
device to escape his chilling embrace. Kings and 
subjects, rich and poor, are alike leveled by his 
sickle, while the friends spared a little longer are 
left to mourn in their grief. (Gen. xxxvii. 34, 35; 



2o6 Spiritual Life. 

John xi. 21, 32.) But when Jesus comes re-union 
will take place, for the sleeping saints and living 
believers shall be caught up together in the air. 
(1 Thess. iv. 17, 18). 

3. But again, death does not consummate our 
salvation ; by it we are made incomplete; the body 
rests in the grave, and the spirit rests with the 
Lord. (1 Thess. iv. 13; n Cor. v. 8.) When 
Jesus comes and gathers His people unto Himself, 
the corruptible shall put on incorruption, referring 
to those who have died, while the mortal shall put 
on immortality, referring to those who shall be 
found alive at His Advent. Then, indeed, shall 
our salvation of soul and body be fully consum- 
mated, for we shall be crowned and glorified in 
that day. (n Tim. iv. 8; Phil. iii. 20, 21.) No 
where in the divine record are we taught to earn- 
estly look for death, to pray for death, to love 
death, to be comforted with the hope of death, to 
hasten death, or to watch for death. But always 
and everywhere these exhortations have direct ref- 
erence to the coming of Christ; "waiting for the 
Son from heaven." 

I do not deny the intermediate state as one of 
restful bliss. It is, indeed, better to be " absent 
from the body, and present with the L,ord, n than 
to be in suffering and sorrow down here. More 
prominence is given, however, to the final or resur- 
rection state than to that which is intermediate. 



The Believers Blessed Hope. 207 

The future will be the consummation period, hence 
the frequency of exhortation to look for the blessed 
Hope. 

V. Power of the Blessed Hope. Faith looks 
upward ; hope looks onward. Whatever mean- 
ing we may put on the prophetic event intro- 
duced in the Scriptures as our L,ord's second 
coming, we notice that it is frequently speci- 
fied as a Hope. And as hope implies expectation, 
the church should wear the onward look. The 
believer should be an expectant. 

Hope is the antipode of despair. It has a defi- 
nite object in view, and as that object is perceived 
at hand, or remotely, the soul is swayed by deliver- 
ance or discouragement. The blessed hope and 
appearing in glory of our L,ord Jesus Christ should 
not be relegated to the regions of mystery or mysti- 
cism. How can it be a hope of any value, if it be 
some uncertain, indefinite, mystic, and far-away, 
and non-essential theory which happened to drop 
into the Bible? In fifty-three places where hope 
is referred to in the divine word, it has special re- 
lation to future blessings which are to crown the 
Christian believer at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 
A few of these we might examine. 

1. It is a blessed hope. " Looking for the blessed 
hope and appearing of the glory of our great God 
and Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus ii. 13.) A 
blessed hope means a happy one. The word refers 



2o8 Spiritual Life, 

to inward enjoyment apart from external environ- 
ment. The expectations implied in such a hope 
make all present circumstances of trial or depres- 
sion ( ' not worthy to be compared with the glory 
which shall be revealed to us- ward. For the earn- 
est expectation of the creation waiteth for the 
revealing of the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 18, 19. 
R. V.) 

2. It is a purifying hope. l ' And every man that 
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he 
is pure." (1 John iii. 3.) As linen bleaches under 
the sun, the light of this hope cleanses the life 
from world-stains. It loosens the grasp from the 
things of earth. The man who has a magnificent 
mansion in some beautiful locality, and is only 
tarrying in a city hotel for a few days till he can 
journey home, will not care to spend time and 
money and thought in elaborately decorating his 
temporary lodgings in the strange city. So the 
Christian, who reckons himself a "pilgrim and a 
stranger" here, will have little heart to spend his 
energies on things pertaining merely to the earthly. 
His city and his home lie beyond. His great con- 
cern will be to " lay up treasures in heaven. " (Col. 
iii. 1, 4.) 

3. It is a pacifying hope. "Therefore judge 
nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
will both bring to light the hidden things of dark- 
ness, and will make manifest the counsels of the 



The Believer's Blessed Hope. 209 

hearts: and then shall every man have praise of 
God." (1 Cor. iv. 5.) " Be patient, therefore, 
brethren, nnto the coming of the Lord. Behold, 
the hnsbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of 
the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he 
receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also 
patient ; stablish your hearts : for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh." (James v. 7, 8.) In the 
power of this hope all questions of provocation can 
be patiently laid aside for the Lord to settle on His 
arrival. The child of God who is pervaded with 
this hope will be willing to waive all rights of self- 
vindication, knowing that his ' ' labor of love and 
patience of hope" will not go unrewarded. (1 
Thess. i. 3.) 

4. It is a comforting hope. ' ' But I would not 
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others 
which have no hope." (1 Thess. iv. 13.) The 
lustre of this hope shines most conspicuously in the 
consolation it brings to those who are called to part 
with their loved ones by death. The unbelieving 
bury their dead without any certain or definite ex- 
pectation of reunion. For in no other so-called 
sacred book than the Bible is the truth of a resurrec- 
tion even hinted at. But the Scriptures do definitely 
promise this. " For if we believe that Jesus died and 
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
will God bring with Him." (1 Thess. iv. 14.) The 



2io Spiritual Life, 

Apostle Paul, after explaining all this to the Thes- 
salonian Christians, and showing them the immense 
advantage they had over the heathen who knew 
nothing about the return in majesty of Jesus Christ r 
nor of the resurrection, adds finally, "Wherefore 
comfort one another with these words." 

5. It is a glorioles hope. i ' For our conversation 
is in heaven: from whence also we look for the 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change 
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
his glorious body, according to the working whereby 
he is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." 
(Phil. iii. 20, 21.) " By faith, Abraham, when he 
was tried, offered up Isaac : and he that had received 
the promises offered up his only begotten son, of 
whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be 
called: accounting that God was able to raise him 
up, even from the dead; from whence also he re- 
ceived him in a figure. . . . Women received their 
dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, 
not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain 
a better resurrection. ' ' (Heb. xi. 17-19, 35.) This 
hope would be meaningless apart from the locality 
and the circumstances where it anchors itself. It 
leaps over time and space to the period when Jesus 
Christ shall Himself be glorified as King of kings 
according to the eternal purpose of the Father. 

6. This blessed hope embraces several promised 
facts. 



The Believer's Blessed Hope. 211 

We shall be with Christ. Not as at death when 
we are said to be u unclothed, ' ' and ( ' waiting to be 
clothed upon with our house from heaven. " (2 Cor. 
v. 1-3.) In an actual sense we shall u see Him as 
He is, ' ' and be ourselves like Him personally and 
morally. We shall be beyond sinning. Now we 
groan for deliverance. Pain and the curse encom- 
pass us. The consummation of that hope will bring 
full redemption to the body. (Rom. viii. 22, 23.) 
We shall know as we are known. i l Now we see 
through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now 
I know in part; but then shall I know even as also 
I am known." (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) What joy to 
have the hope of one day being masters of all 
knowledge ; to understand the mysteries of science, 
the marvels of astronomy, the secrets of nature, 
and the profound depths of the soul ! 

7. What then should be our present attitude? We 
are to be looking for the blessed crisis. (Titus ii. 
13.) That is, expecting it with desire. We are to 
be hastening it. (11 Peter iii. 12). That is, urging 
on its consummation by our attitude of personal 
faithfulness toward all that it involves. We should 
be loving it. (1 Tim. iv. 8.) If we love the seed 
of Abraham, if we love the burdened brute creation, 
if we love the heathen Gentile nations who know 
nothing of a Saviour, we shall joyfully anticipate 
this hope, for their sakes also. For it is the hope 
that shall bring to the Jew his Messiah; to the 



212 Spiritual Life. 

creature his emancipation from man's exacting 
dominion; to dumb creation her freedom from 
thorns and thistles ; to the heathen idolater a knowl- 
edge of the true and living God ; and to the waiting 
Bride the personal presence of the heavenly Bride- 
groom. Yea, it will bring to Jesus His Kingdom, 
Crown, and Throne. 

1 ' Thus heavenward all things tend, for all were once 
Perfect, and all niust be at length restored ; 
Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world 
Ye slow revolving seasons ; we would see 
A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet — 
A world that does not dread and hate His laws, 
And suffer for its crime. 
Come, then, and to Thy many crowns, 
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
Thou, who alone art worthy. It was Thine, 
By ancient covenant ere nature's birth, 
And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since, 

And overpaid its value with Thy blood." 

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for 
these things, give diligence that ye may be found 
in peace, without spot, and blameless in His sight. ' ' 
(n Pet. iii. 14; R. V.) 




XII. 

SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE PSALMS. 
[Explanatory.] 

HE subject of " Spiritual L,ife in the 
Psalms " necessitates an explanation of 
the book ; a general exposition of its 
design, and an exegesis of several pas- 
sages where LJFK is especially introduced. 

Some old writers translated the original title of 
the book by the English words, " to move briskly, 
irradiate, shine." They, therefore, called it "the 
book of the shinings forth," " irradiations," " mani- 
festations or displays," viz. : Displays of divine 
wisdom and love, exhibited in God's dealings with 
His chosen people. The book may be compared 
to the Cloud of glory, which was not only the 
symbol of, but the very envelope which enwrapped 
the divine presence. Israel's God was in the Cloud, 
speaking out of it sometimes in hot rebuke, yet 
again with words of gentle admonition and endear- 
ing persuasion. Righteous anger flashed from that 
Cloud ; divine compassion flowed from it. At times 
we observe God vindicating His uncompromising 
holiness in slaying the rebellious, yet again and 
again illustrating His matchless patience toward 
His self-willed people. 

(213) 



2 14 Spiritual Life. 

Not unlike the Cloud do these Psalms reveal 
God's essential character. Water-floods, tempests, 
earthquakes, and mighty thunders, not only declare 
His power, but also His burning indignation against 
sin. The green pastures, the still waters, the shining 
of the sun, the serene heavens show forth the merci- 
ful side of God, which is ever toward the children 
of men. The desolating Jehovah of Psalm xlvi. 
is also the pitying Father of Psalm ciii. The 
analogy may be carried out more fully when we 
remember the uses of the Cloud. It was Israel's 
guide, shield and light. In Ps. lxxiii. 24, we read, 
"Thou slialt guide me with Thy counsel." In 
Ps. xliii. 3, it is declared, " His truth shall be thy 
shield and buckler." Ps. cv. 30, acknowledges, 
"The entrance of Thy word giveth light." 

I. The book of Psalms has also been called " THE 
book OF praises," and by that name it is now 
known in the church. Praise is abundant in this 
part of Holy Writ, rising higher and higher towards 
the close, when in a grand climax everything in 
heaven above, and on earth beneath, is invited to 
swell the song of worship, " L,et everything that 
hath breath praise the Lord," Ps. cl. 6. The first 
uote of praise is in recognition of His righteousness 
(Ps. vii. 17); and the last for His mighty acts 
(Ps. cl. 3). 

In Bphesians v. 19, we observe a threefold division 
of praise which may have special reference to this 






Spiritual Life in the Psalms* 215 

book. " Speaking to yourselves in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making 
melody in your heart to the L,ord." The parts 
called Psalms were generally accompanied by an 
instrument, and may have been declarations and 
acknowledgments of God in the manifestations of 
His power and glory. Hymns were offered as an 
act of worship in which praise was directly ascribed 
to God by His redeemed people. Songs would 
more especially express the emotions of the wor- 
shipers. 

The book of Psalms includes all these : psalms, 
hymns and spiritual songs. There is a constant 
outcry against emotional preaching, but nowhere 
in the Psalms do I find that special provision has 
been made for the suppression, or repression, of the 
believer's emotional nature. Emotions of grief or 
gladness are herein fully recognized. Precious 
little interest will the book of Psalms have for us 
if the juices of our life have been sapped by an 
overweening intellectualism. The proprieties so 
called have been the death of revivals both in the 
church and individual souls. Praise that comes 
from a frozen heart, or that falls from icy lips, is 
but the simulation of worship. " God is a Spirit, 
and they that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth." As we read the Psalms, we 
need the Holy Spirit to enkindle our emotions, in 
order that we duly appreciate them and readily 



216 Spiritual Life. 

utilize them. To the cold, passionless, rationaliz- 
ing intellect these divine compositions will prove 
but the dead letter of Hebrew poetry. 

The book of Psalms has been used as the vehicle 
of spiritual worship, both by pious Jews and believ- 
ing Gentiles, in every age since God gave them to 
man. Our blessed Lord who understood them in 
their original design and ulterior aim, sang these 
songs of Zion, and with His disciples employed 
them as the expression of His and their devotion. 
In that upper room they sang the hallelujah psalms 
which record the goodness of God to Israel in their 
redemption and rewards, but which carry beneath 
their historic surface, deep and fervid spiritual 
experiences. 

Dr. Kdersheim has called attention to the fact 
that the Talmud dwells upon the peculiar suita- 
bleness of the Hallel to the Passover, " since it not 
only recorded the goodness of God to Israel, but 
especially their deliverance from Egypt, and there- 
fore appropriately opened with ' Praise ye the Lord, 
ye servants of Jehovah,' and no longer ye servants 
of Pharaoh." 

But our blessed Lord has revealed to us deeper 
things in the Psalms, even the things concerning 
Himself. In Ps. xxii. 25, it was predicted of Jesus 
that in the midst of the congregation He would 
sing God's praises. While the complete fulfillment 
of this prophetic utterance is reserved for future 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 217 

occasions, its immediate fulfillment took place when 
our gracious Lord, as precentor, led the band of 
disciples around the Passover table in chanting 
this matchless Hallel. 

Let us now glance at these six Psalms, commenc- 
ing with the one hundred and thirteenth, which 
compose the great Hallel. Observe that this Psalm 
begins with the exclamation of worship, " Halle- 
lujah," rightly translated "Praise ye the Lord." 
" Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the 
Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be 
the name of the Lord from this time forth and for 
evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the 
going down of the same the Lord's name is to be 
praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and 
His glory above the heavens. Who is like unto 
the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who 
humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in 
heaven, and in the earth ! He raiseth up the poor 
out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the 
dunghill ; that He may set him with princes, even 
with the princes of His people. He maketh the 
barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful 
mother of children. Praise ye the Lord." Psalm 
cxiii. 

In this song of praise, the disciples may have 
only their forefathers in mind, who were exalted 
from the dunghill to princely estate, while the 
thoughts of Jesus would encompass and embrace 



2i8 Spiritual Life. 

all of the facts and experiences involved in v. 6, 
" Who humbleth Himself," etc. Did He not under- 
stand this as foreshadowing His own incarnation? 

In Psalm cxiv. the exodus of Israel from Egypt 
is again the subject of sacred song. The triumph 
of their deliverance is sketched in graphic figurative 
language : " When Israel went out of Egypt, the 
house of Jacob from a people of a strange language ; 
Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion. 
The sea saw it, and fled ; Jordan was driven back. 
The mountains skipped like rams, and the little 
hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, 
that thou neddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast 
driven back ? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like 
rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, 
thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the 
presence of the God of Jacob, which turned the 
rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain 
of w T aters." Ps. cxiv. 4-7. 

The third Psalm of the Hallel is a complete 
repudiation of idols, and an exhortation to trust in 
the living God. The Psalm ends with Hallelujah. 
" Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy 
name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy 
truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, 
Where is now their God ? But our God is in the 
heavens : He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. 
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's 
hands. They have mouths, but they speak not ; 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 219 

eyes have they, but they see not ; they have ears, 
but they hear not ; noses have they, but they smell 
not ; they have hands, but they handle not ; feet 
have they, but they walk not ; neither speak they 
through their throat. They that make them are 
like unto them ; so is every one that trusteth in 
them. O Israel, trust thou in the L,ord : He is 
their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, 
trust in the L,ord : He is their help and their 
shield." Ps. cxv. 1-10. 

Psalm cxvi. is more experimental. As on several 
occasions during His earthly life our L,ord wept 
tears of grief, I should not wonder if His recitation 
of the early part of this Psalm had been choked 
with emotions of anguish. Hear Him cry, " The 
sorrows of death compassed Me, and the pains of 
Hell gat hold upon Me ; I found trouble and 
sorrow," v. 3. Yet the Psalm has also its triumph- 
ant assurance. Jesus exultingly exclaims, " For 
Thou hast delivered My soul from death, Mine eyes 
from tears, and My feet from falling. I will walk 
before the L,ord in the land of the living," vs. 8, 9. 
" Thou hast loosed My bonds," refers to our Iyord's 
resurrection. The Psalm ends with Hallelujah. 

In Psalm cxvii. we have a wide range within a 
small compass. This is the central chapter of the 
Bible and its shortest. " O praise the Lord, all ye 
nations ; praise Him, all ye people. For His 
merciful kindness is great toward us : and the 



220 Spiritual Life, 

truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the 
Lord." 

Paul quoted from this Psalm in Romans, to prove 
the calling of the Gentiles. The Gentiles who in 
this age are members of the Church of God ; the 
Gentiles who, as nations, will be brought under the 
sway of Messiah's reign during the millennial age, 
and those who in ages to come shall share in His 
glory are exhorted in this Psalm to shout their 
Hallelujah. Oh ! how Jesus would sing this song 
in that upper room with exultant spirit, as His 
Prophetic eye saw the abundant fruit of His toil ; 
the vast multitudes saved by virtue of His blood. 
" He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall 
be satisfied." 

Psalm cxviii. is a magnificent composition. It 
is the closing Psalm of the great Hallel. The first 
and last verses were chanted at the rebuilding of 
the Temple in the days of Ezra, and possibly the 
whole Psalm formed part of their song-service. 
During the singing at the passover table our Lord 
would recognize the prophecy alluding to Himself, 
" The stone which the builders refused is become 
the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's 
doing; it is marvelous in our eyes," vs. 22, 23. 

This was the Psalm which braced Luther for his 
fight against the enemies of the Church. He 
writes in his dedication of this Psalm: "This is 
my Psalm, my chosen Psalm. I love all holy 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 2,2,1 

Scripture, which is my consolation and my life, 
but this Psalm is nearest to my heart, and I have 
a peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me 
from many a pressing danger, from which nor em- 
peror, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints could have 
saved me. It is my friend ; dearer to me than all 
the honors and powers of the earth." And he 
adds, " I am not jealous of my property ; I would 
divide it with the whole world." 

How significant that v. 8 is the middle verse of 
the Bible ! " It is better to trust in the Lord, than 
to put confidence in man." Many writers assert 
that the early Church, following the example of our 
Lord and His disciples, used the book of Psalms 
for public praise. The primitive Christians were 
severely simple in their ritual. Their spirituality 
of worship was not degraded to artificiality by mo- 
tives of foolish display. Where such temptations 
overtake and overcome a church it is only fit to be 
spewed out like the church of L^aodicea. It is a 
very solemn affair to undertake the guidance of 
church praise. If there be a chorister, and if there 
be a choir, such persons should be specially charac- 
terized by sobriety of demeanor and by a fervent 
spirituality. Honest Adam Clark, referring to the 
pure worship of the early church, and remarking 
on the singers of his time, said : " Those whose 
peculiar office it is to direct and lead that part of 
the divine worship which consists in singing the 



2,22 Spiritual Life. 

high praises of God, should have clean hands and 
pure hearts. To see this part of public worship 
performed by unthinking if not profligate youths 
of both sexes fills the serious with pain and the 
ungodly with contempt. He who sings not with 
the spirit, as well as with the understanding, offers 
a sacrifice to God as acceptable as the dog's head 
and swine's blood would have been under the 
Mosaic law." 

I do not know if choirs generally have improved 
since Adam Clark's day ; but this we do know, 
that there is a marked contrast between the sen- 
suous worship of our times, chiefly limited to 
choirs and quartettes, and the exalted worship of 
spiritual life which finds its varied expressions of 
reverence, homage, devotion and adoration in the 
book of Psalms. The sentimentalism of carnal 
worshipers may be gratified by unmeaning sound, 
but how God can be glorified, or the church edi- 
fied by senseless jargon, is a question beyond our 
comprehension. 

In Psalm xlvii. we are commanded to sing 
praises with understanding. Old Charnock 
said : "In worship the soul adores and reverences 
God's majesty, is ravished with His amiableness, 
embraceth His goodness, enters itself into an inti- 
mate communion with this most lovely object, and 
pitcheth all His affections upon Him ; we must 
worship God understanding^ ; it is not else a 
reasonable service." 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 223 

Much of modern hymn- writing has lowered the 
standard of worship. The sickly rhymes without 
reverence or sense, full of silly endearments and 
frivolous allusions to things most sacred, has pros- 
tituted spiritual praise, while many of our revival 
song-services are more befitting heathen fanes than 
Jehovah's temple. Silly ditties which have over- 
flowed the land indicate how sadly the Church has 
declined in her worship from the days when she 
appreciated " David's harp of solemn sound." 

The Psalms always present the living God as 
the object of worship. The voice is unto God. 

1. The voice of supplication is directed to Him. 
" My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O 
L,ord ; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto 
Thee, and will look up. For Thou art not a God 
that hath pleasure in wickedness ; neither shall 
evil dwell with Thee." Ps. v. 3, 4. 

2. The voice of praise is uplifted to Him. " Sing 
praises to God, sing praises ; sing praises unto our 
King, sing praises." Ps. xlvii. 6. 

The voice of lattdation is to God. " O clap your 
hands, all ye people ; shout unto God with the voice 
of triumph." Ps. xlvii. 1. 

As the panting deer hastens to the water-brooks, 
so the throbbing heart of the believer hasteth to- 
wards God. Hear the cry of the quickened soul. 
" O send out Thy light and Thy truth : let them 
lead me ; let them bring me unto Thv holy hill, 



224 Spiritual Life. 

and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the 
altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy ; yea, 
upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God." 
Ps. xliii. 3, 4. 

Notice here : The light like the Cloud of old, 
leads to the holy hill of Zion. But that does not 
satisfy. Nor does the Tabernacle, the house of the 
L,ord, satisfy ; nor does the brazen altar with its 
smoking sacrifices, nor the golden altar with its 
fragrant incense, fully satisfy. The true worshiper 
must enter within the vail to commune with a per- 
sonal God who Himself is the believer's joy. 

II. The soul's outlook God-ward is a promi- 
nent feature of the Psalms. Praise is offered to 
Him ; prayer is directed to Him ; confession is made 
unto Him ; pardon is sought at His hands ; service 
is rendered to Him, while worship ascends to Him. 

Kven the most superficial glance at the book of 
Psalms will not fail to notice that every aspiration 
and longing of the soul is toward God. When sub- 
merged in deep distress, as lead sunk in the ocean, 
or when borne aloft above the storm as on eagle's 
wings, God is always the Being to whom it turns. 
Is the soul at a distance from God ? Then do we 
hear its throb of spoken anguish, " From the ends 
of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart 
is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher 
than I." Ps. lxi. 2. Or, is the soul near to God? 
Then do we hear its joy exulting amid surrounding 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 225 

gloom, " Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou 
art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort 
me." Ps. xxiii. 4. 

Responding as the rain drop to the law of gravita- 
tion, Spiritual life, as shown in the Psalms, is 
attracted to God. He is the mysterious pole of the 
moral universe, to which the sensitive needle of 
divine life in the regenerate man undeviatingly 
turns. There are indeed spiritual atmospheric dis- 
turbances recognized throughout the book ; still the 
trembling needle refuses to rest in any direction but 
toward the personal L,ord God who is its great 
affinity. 

Turn we now to Psalm sixty-three, where we find 
proof of the yearnings of spiritual life after the 
living God. Give special emphasis in reading to 
the names of " God," and the pronouns " Thkk" 
and "Thy." "O God, Thou art my God; early 
will I seek Thee : my soul thirsteth for Thee, my 
flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, 
where no water is ; to see Thy power and Thy glory, 
so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. Because 
Thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall 
praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live ; 
I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall 
be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; and my 
mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips ; when I 
remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on 
15 



226 Spiritual Life. 

Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been 
my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will 
I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee ; Thy 
right hand upholdeth me," vs. 1-8. 

Quaintly does Master Thomas Brooks comment 
on the first verse : " He doth not say my soul 
thirsteth for water, but my soul thirsteth for Thee ; 
nor doth he say my soul thirsteth for the blood of 
mine enemies, but my soul thirsteth for Thee ; nor 
doth he say my soul thirsteth for deliverance out of 
this dry and barren wilderness, but my soul thirst- 
eth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no 
water is ; nor doth he say my soul thirsteth for a 
crown, or a kingdom, but my soul thirsteth for 
Thee ; my flesh longeth for Thee." 

Surely this also is our desire, or at least we desire 
to have this desire ; we long for this longing. Oft 
and again in reading the book of Psalms, are we 
reminded of the truly sainted Rutherford, whose 
fervid utterances, both in his sermons and letters, 
indicate the profound emotions of his soul. Said 
this sainted preacher : " Oh that Christ would 
come near, and stand still, and give me leave to 
look upon Him ! for to look seemeth the poor man's 
privilege, since he may for nothing and without 
hire behold the sun. I should have a king's life ; 
if I had no other thing to do than forevermore to 
behold and eye my fair L,ord Jesus ; nay, suppose I 
were holden out at heaven's fair entry, I should be 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 227 

happy for evermore to look through a hole in the 
door, and see my dearest and fairest Lord's face. O 
great King, why standest Thou aloof? Why remain- 
est Thou beyond the mountains ? O well-beloved, 
why dost Thou pain a poor soul with delays ? A 
long time out of Thy glorious presence is two 
deaths and two hells to me. We must meet ; I must 
see Him. I am not able to do without Him. 
Hunger and longing for Christ hath brought me 
such a necessity of enjoying Christ, that cost me 
what it will, I cannot but assure Christ that I will 
not, I am not able to do without Him." 

Such are the quenchless longings of true spirit- 
ual life, whether found pulsating in the heart of a 
banished king within his cave Adullam, or a ban- 
ished preacher within a prison cell. Most patheti- 
cally does Testergeen portray this phase of Christian 
experience in the sublime hymn concluding with 
these lines : 

" My heart is pained, nor can it be 
At rest, till it finds rest in Thee. 

Are not these outgoings of the soul the fruitage 
of spiritual life ? Do we not everywhere through- 
out the book of Psalms recognize this devotion of 
spiritual life ? Do we not see that life ascending 
heavenward on wings of love and trust seeking 
companionship with God ? And the personal 
being of God, in all His glorious attributes, per- 
fections, and providences, becomes the engrossing 



228 Spiritual Life. 

object of tlie believer's worship. He lives in God, 
lie moves in God ; lie drinks in every precious 
thought of God which makes Him real, and which 
brings Him nigh. 

The magnificent covenant Psalm, the 89th, ex- 
emplifies this spirit of devotion, in extolling God's 
glorious attributes : " I will sing of the mercies of 
the Lord forever ; with my mouth will I make 
known Thy faithfulness to all generations. For I 
have said, Mercy shall be built up forever; Thy 
faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very 
heavens. I have made a covenant with My chosen, 
I have sworn unto David My servant, Thy seed will 
I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all 
generations. Selah. And the heavens shall praise 
Thy wonders, O Lord ; Thy faithfulness also in the 
congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven 
can be compared unto the Lord ? who among the 
sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord ? 
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the 
saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that 
are about Him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a 
strong Lord like unto Thee ? or to Thy faithfulness 
round about Thee ? " 

1. The power of God is the subject of holy song. 
" Be Thou exalted, Lord, in Thine own strength ; 
so will we sing and praise Thy power." Ps. lxxxix. 
13. "All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord ; 
and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 229 

of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy 
power." Ps. cxlv. 10, 11. "Great is our L,ord, 
and of great power ; His understanding is infinite." 
Ps. cxlvii. 5. 

2. The holiness of God calls out fervent thanks- 
giving. " Give unto the L,ord the glory due unto 
His name ; worship the L,ord in the beauty of 
holiness." Ps. xxix. 2. " Sing unto the Lord, 
O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remem- 
brance of His holiness." Ps. xxx. 4. " Thy testi- 
monies are very sure ; holiness becometh Thine 
house, O Iyord, forever." Ps. xciii. 5. " O worship 
the L,ord in the beauty of holiness ; fear before 
Him, all the earth." Ps. xcvi. 9. 

Holiness is that attribute of God which fills the 
saint with joyous exultation, and the sinner with 
dread alarm. God is glorious in holiness ; this at- 
tribute is the foundation and topstone of our salva- 
tion. " Grace reigns through righteousness unto 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our L,ord." The 
Christian believer is saved righteously, and saved 
unto righteousness. 

3. God's faithfulness is also a theme for praise. 
How oft He declares the fact that His faithfulness 
will not fail. How frequently also the believer 
expresses his assurance of that fact. " For ever, O 
Ivord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faith- 
fulness is unto all generations ; Thou hast estab- 
lished the earth, and it abideth. " Ps. cxix. 89, 90. 



230 Spiritual Life. 

Since mercy and truth have met together, since 
righteousness and peace have kissed each other, 
we can meditate without fear on all the divine 
attributes and perfections of the Godhead. " Thy 
mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens : and Thy faith- 
fulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteous- 
ness is like the great mountains ; Thy judgments 
are a great deep ; O Lord, Thou preservest man 
and beast. How excellent is Thy loving kind- 
ness, O God ! therefore the children of men put 
their trust under the shadow of Thy wings." Ps. 
xxxvi. 5-7. 

In every division of the Psalms we observe at 
their close joyous outbursts of praise. There are 
five of these divisions : the first ends with the 
41st Psalm ; the second with the 72d ; the third 
with the 89th ; the fourth with the 106th ; and the 
fifth with the 150th. 

Notice the closing verses of these great divisions : 
u Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from ever- 
lasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen." 
Ps. xli. 13. 

" Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, 
who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be 
His glorious name forever ; and let the whole earth 
be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen. The 
prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." Ps. 
lxxii. 18-20. When this prayer is answered, noth- 
ing more remains to be prayed for. 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 231 

" Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen, and 
Amen." Ps. Ixxxix. 52. 

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from ever- 
lasting to everlasting ; and let all the people say, 
Amen. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. cvi. 48. 

" Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord." Ps. cl. 6. 

Between the first verse of each division, and the 
closing verses where the writer places his "Amen," 
there are revelations of God, and of man, workings 
of providence, references to time and eternity which 
we may not understand. Things too high for us ; 
things more wonderful than we can grasp, more 
complicated than we can unravel. Yet I observe 
this feature of spiritual life throughout, viz.: its 
unaffected, its unfeigned sympathy with God em- 
phatically declared. Sympathy with His kingly 
sovereignty and absolute supremacy ; sympathy 
with His Fatherly pity towards His feeble saints, 
and with His righteous indignation towards the 
wicked ; sympathy with His grace towards the 
erring, and with His awful judgments which visit 
the evil-doer, whether human or angelic. Nowhere 
does spiritual life in the Psalms take God to task 
for His often strange proceedings and terribly 
ravaging providences ; nowhere in the book is 
apology offered for the severe dealings of God with 
His enemies which runs throughout it all. 

I grant that often a spasm of pain shot through 



232 Spiritual Life. 

the soul of David, as he pondered on the startling 
questions of divine sovereignty and human respon- 
sibility, so that, like a man in a troubled dream, he 
muttered incoherent ravings about matters which 
could not be harmonized with his views of right 
and wrong. But his firm faith in the absolute 
wisdom of God supported him under these fiery 
trials and conflicts ; his confidence silenced his 
complaint. The 73d Psalm illustrates this phase 
of Christian experience. Asaph had fallen into 
great mental trouble when he saw the wicked 
prospering in life, and peaceful in death. Of him- 
self he declares : " Verily I have cleansed my heart 
in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For 
all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened 
every morning." Then he adds, referring to the 
apparent happiness of the wicked in life and death : 
" When I thought to know this, it was too painful 
for me ; until I went into the Sanctuary of God ; 
then understood I their end. Surely Thou didst 
set them in slippery places ; thou castedst them 
down into destruction. How are they brought into 
desolation, as in a moment ! they are utterly con- 
sumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh : 
so, O Iyord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise 
their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I 
was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and 
ignorant ; I was as a beast before Thee." 

Here is a lamentable yet truthful confession, that 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 233 

man has but a beast's knowledge of God's eternal 
purposes. Only in the sanctuary, only by the 
Spirit, only through Scripture is man enlightened 
in the ways of God. " O the depth of the riches 
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how 
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past 
finding out. For who hath known the mind of 
the L,ord, or who hath been His counsellor?" 

While it is evident that no such baseless senti- 
mental hopefulness (which learned men call optim- 
ism) is found in the Psalms, as we hear uttered by 
modern false prophets, neither do we discover a 
despairing, remorseless hopelessness (which the 
wise term pessimism) within its pages. The glowing 
light of hope shines out of the book ; not however 
hope from man, who can never by his wisdom or 
power lift a dead world out of the pit in which it 
is sinking still deeper ; but hope from Jehovah 
Jesus, Redeemer, Saviour, King, who will come 
again in Majesty even as He came formerly in 
Meekness, to completely redeem the world from sin 
and death and the devil. 

III. The experiences of spiritual life in the 
Psalms are very varied. They range from one 
extreme to another. At times there is great depres- 
sion of soul ; a feeling of utter desolation, of extreme 
sadness gliding into an apparently hopeless melan- 
choly. In Psalm cxxxvii. we have an illustration 
of this sorrow. " By the rivers of Babylon, there 



234 Spiritual Life, 

we sat down ; yea, we wept when we remembered 
Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in 
the midst thereof." 

In Psalm cxxx. we find the same experience, 
" Out of the depths have I cried unto the L,ord." 
But the pit is not the abiding place of the believer. 
He has also his celestial elevations ; his moments of 
blissful transport. And these are more frequent and 
permanent than the hours of distress. ( ' Weeping 
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the 
morning." As in the summer season the darkness 
is short-lived, so at longest our seasons of gloom are 
brief. If we find ourselves in the pit for an hour, 
we appreciate the more fully our deliverance, and 
enjoy with greater zest the prolonged periods of 
gladsome delights. 

In Psalm xxvii. 5, 6, we have a different note from 
the cry from the pit : u For in the time of trouble 
he shall hide me in his pavilion ; in the secret of his 
tabernacle shall he hide me ; he shall set me upon a 
rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above 
mine enemies round about me ; therefore will I 
offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I will sing, 
yea, I will sing praises unto the I^ord." 

The reality of these experiences enhance the 
value of the Psalms to us. They are our own ex- 
periences ; nothing is artificial. There are no pre- 
tensions ; the sorrows are real, the pain is real, the 
mental conflict is real, the sublime faith is real, the 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 235 

glorious deliverances are real, the spiritual luxuries 
are real. 

Many are the characteristic titles given to this 
Book by those who found them an exact portraiture 
of their own experiences. One calls it The Soul's 
Anatomy ; another, The L,aw's Epitome ; still 
another, The Gospel's Index. It is to one, The 
Garden of the Scriptures ; to another, A Sweet 
Field and Rosary of Promises, Precepts, Praises, 
Predictions and Soliloquies. It has been called The 
very heart and soul of God ; An Epitome of all 
Scripture, a little Bible, Singing Groves, Tinkling 
Rills, Pastures Green. 

The Psalms are potential, for they minister to the 
heart, and by the heart also are they properly under- 
stood. Within their pages spiritual life is heart 
life. 

Does God invite the sinner to Himself? Hear 
the response in Ps. xxvii. 8, " When Thou saidst 
unto me, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto 
Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." 

Is God worthy of praise? In Ps. ix. 1, we read, 
"I will give thanks unto God with my whole 

HEART." 

Is salvation worthy of our acceptance ? In Ps. 
xiii. 5, we read, "My heart shall rejoice in Thy 
salvation." 

And so throughout the book. " My heart is 
inditing a good matter." " Create in me a clean 



236 Spiritual Life. 

heart, O God." The Lord is nigh unto them 
that are of a broken heart." 

Nor is it the sinner's heart, nor yet the saint's 
heart, which is made prominent. We read the 
prophetic admission of Jesus, " Reproach hath 
broken Mine heart ; " while in anticipation of a 
joyful resurrection He sings, " Therefore My heart 
is glad and My glory rejoiceth." I have met with 
the word " heart" over 130 times in these 150 
Psalms. The sinner's heart, corrupt, unclean, 
deceitful, treacherous, selfish, insincere, foolish. 
The believer's heart, cleansed, joyful, hopeful, fixed. 
God's heart, generous, gracious, forgiving, pitiful. 
Christ's heart, sad, broken, rejoicing, constant. 

No book, however profound, can be compared 
with this ancient collection of Psalms, which worm 
their way into our inmost souls, and warm our 
emotions by their glowing revelations.* 

* ' ' Men seemingly the most unlikely to express enthusiasm 
about any such matter — lawyers and statists immersed deeply 
in this world's business, classical scholars familiar with other 
models of beauty, other standards of art — these have been for- 
ward as the forwardest to set their seal to this book, have left 
their confession that it was the voice of their inmost heart, that 
the spirit of it passed into their spirits as did the spirit of no other 
book, that it found them more often and at greater depths of 
their being, lifted them to higher heights than did any other — or, 
as one greatly suffering man, telling of the solace which he found 
from this Book of Psalms in the hours of a long imprisonment, 
has expressed it — that it bore him up, as a lark perched between 
an eagle's wings is borne up, into the everlasting sunlight, till 
he saw the world and all its trouble forever underneath him. ' ' — 
Archbishop Trench. 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 237 

So great is the variety of trie Psalrns that their 
Author must have been acquainted with the infinite 
changes of the human mind ; its moods, fears, hopes, 
disappointments, exultations ; he must have known 
every phase of human life in all lands, throughout 
all ages, barbarious and civilized, pagan and 
Christian. Is it possible that any one being could 
comprehend these multitudinous experiences, por- 
tray them with minute fidelity, and anticipate the 
conflicts of untold millions of the human race? 
Yes, it is possible, but we must admit that such a 
Being is Infinite, Omniscient, Almighty. I defy 
the most astute skeptical thinker, who has a spark 
of honor in his soul, to rise from a patient thought- 
ful perusal of the book of Psalms and thereafter 
accredit its production to a human source. No ! it 
is too much to ask us to believe that these match- 
less revelations are purely human compositions. 
We affirm our deepest conviction that the thoughts 
and words, the heights and depths, the majesties 
and the infinitesimals, the majors and the minors, 
are supernatural, and therefore superhuman. 

Iyying on his dying couch the son of Jesse utters 
this honest testimony : " The Spirit of the L,ord 
spake by me and His word was in my tongue." 
Give credit to the Bard of Avon for his creations 
and his maxims ; give credit to blind Milton for his 
works and for his words ; give credit to John 
Bunyan for his spiritual allegories presented in 



238 Spiritual Life. 

chastest and choicest Anglo-Saxon ; but let us not 
fail to give credit to One greater than all these 
for the Book of Psalms. Its revelations of God ; 
its portrayals of man ; its subjects and predictions ; 
its thoughts, ideas, language, words, particles, jots 
and tittles, have come to us from no less an Author 
than the third Person of the blessed Trinity, the 
Originating Inspiring Spirit, who is Author and 
Finisher of all Holy Scripture. 




XIII. 

SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE PSALMS. 
[Expository.] 

T is a simple statement, but a sadly pro- 
found fact, that we are living in a world 
of death. Man was once the possessor 
of life, but he forfeited it by disobe- 
dience, and died — he died to God. The race was 
thereby struck with death in its federal head, and 
like a poisoned fountain sending its deadly waters 
into every stream and tributary, so every individual 
of the race, descending from a spiritually dead 
parentage, is born spiritually dead. 

"As by one man sin came into the world, and 
death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that 
all have sinned." Physical death is but one of the 
apalling results of that fell destroyer, sin, which 
alienated man from God, and thereby robbed the 
whole human family of this God-given boon — the 
life of God in the soul of man. 

But that which man forfeited Christ recovered. 
He came that we might have life, and " He brought 
life and immortality to light through the gospel.' ' 
I am now speaking of life in its fullness. Physical 
life is not all of life, nor is intellectual life its 
highest form. Whatever of life man possesses as 

( 2 39) 



240 Spiritual Life. 

a rational being, it is no more to be compared with 
the life he lost through sin, or the life he gains in 
Christ, than the life of the least and most useless 
insect is comparable with our highest natural 
instincts and powers. 

Our task now is to trace this subject of spiritual 
life throughout the Psalms ; its nature and character, 
its extent and perpetuity, its support and defence, 
its joyousness and its source. 

The Psalms deal very largely with this subject 
of life. In Psalm xlii. 2, we read that God is 
" the living God." In Psalm Hi. 5, we read that 
the wicked who love evil, will be rooted " out of 
the land of the living." In Psalm lxix. 28, the 
enemies of the L,ord are said to be " blotted out of 
the book of the living." In Psalm lvi. 13, the 
redeemed will "walk before God in the light of the 
living." In Psalm xxii. 26, we read that they who 
seek the Lord, "their heart shall live forever." In 
Psalm lxxii. 15, it is predicted of the Royal King 
that "He shall live." In Psalm cxviii. 17, the 
believer boasts "I shall not die, but live" In 
Psalm cxix. 17, the believer prays, "Deal bounti- 
fully with Thy servant, that I may live and keep 
Thy word;" in v. yy } u Let Thy tender mercies 
come into me that I may live;" v. 116, "Uphold 
me according to Thy word, that I may live;" v. 124, 
"Give me understanding, and I shall live." 

We cannot read the Psalms without being sensible 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 241 

of this throb of life making its power felt through- 
out the book, and therein, also, we see how the 
race yearns for its recovery, as the true mother 
yearns for a lost child. 

I. The nature and character of spiritual life. 
" Thou wilt show ine the path of life : in Thy 
presence is fullness of joy ; at Thy right hand are 
pleasures for evermore." Psalm xvi. 11. 

This Psalm has been called " The Golden Psalm," 
and we may truly say that the gold of this land is 
good. It has also been designated l ( David's precious 
jewel." It is indeed a jewel among other jewels, 
and is of priceless worth, for the Psalm brings 
Jesus into view. Peter quotes from it in his sermon. 
" For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw 
the Lord always before my face, for he is on my 
right hand, that I should not be moved : Therefore 
did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad ; 
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope : Because 
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt 
Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life ; 
Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy counte- 
nance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto 
you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead 
and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this 
day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that 
God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the 
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would 
16 



242 Spiritual Life. 

raise up Christ to sit on his throne ; He seeing this 
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His 
soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see 
corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof 
we all are witnesses." Acts ii. 25-32. 

In this quotation we have a fair sample of Scrip- 
ture interpretation. Hundreds of years before our 
Lord's advent the sixteenth Psalm was composed. 
Peter refers to it as prophetic of Christ's resurrec- 
tion. ' It was a proper appeal to the Jewish people. 
They would not believe Peter's testimony, but can 
they refuse to believe their own Scriptures? David, 
being a prophet, declared that God would raise up 
Christ to sit on His throne. 

Paul also quotes from this Psalm in his sermon. 
" Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou 
shalt not suffer thine Holy one to see corruption. 
For David, after he had served his own generation 
by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto 
his fathers, and saw corruption ; but he whom God 
raised again saw no corruption." Acts xiii. 35-37. 

Thus Paul proves the same great fact which 
Peter declared, that Christ was raised from the dead, 
and saw no corruption. 

Turn we again to the Psalm itself. Jesus is the 
speaker when He declared, " Thou wilt show Me 
the path of life." Both Peter and Paul having 
applied this saying to our Lord's resurrection, I 
wish to call special attention to THE PATH OF LIFE, 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 243 

as that of our LorcPs pathway from the grave. In 
other words, the spiritual life of this Psalm is 
Chris fs resitrrection life, and by consequence, our 
resurrection life by and in Him. 

But Jesus had first trodden the path of death 
and reached its end. He tasted its bitterness, He 
endured its agonies, He experienced its mysterious 
power, He submitted to the execution of its dread 
sentence, He entered upon that pathway knowing 
its consuming dread, its horrors and its darkness. 
He must have frequently pondered the twenty- 
second Psalm, where it is predicted that He would 
be the scorn and contempt of men ; that mockingly 
they would jeer Him for His professed faith in God ; 
that along that pathway there were angry bulls to 
gore Him ; roaring lions from the pit to spring upon 
Him ; vicious dogs to bite Him ; sharp thorns to 
pierce His brow, and cruel nails to tear His flesh. 
He knew that His blessed feet would sink in deep 
mire when alone He entered death's domain ; that 
storms from above would burst upon Him. He 
knew that strong, relentless enemies watched for 
His life; that reproach, accusation, betrayal, deser- 
tion lay before Him ; that wounds and bruises, that 
weariness and painfulness, that hunger and burning 
thirst would be His portion, while mocked with gall 
for meat and vinegar for drink. He knew His own 
nation would disown Him ; His disciples betray 
Him, deny Him, forsake Him. He knew malicious 



244 Spiritual Life, 

demons, headed by Beelzebub their prince, the old 
serpent, that is, the devil, would do their worst to 
rob Him of His life. Do we wonder, knowing all 
this, that He would be pressed on every side by 
malignant foes, and seeing before Him the darkest 
cloud which ever swept athwart the sky, hiding the 
face of God from view, He should cry out, " My 

SOUL IS EXCEEDING SORROWFUL UNTO DEATH ? " 

Do we wonder that, " being in agony, He prayed 
more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great 
drops of blood falling down to the ground ? " 

But another wonder awaits us, viz. : that our 
blessed L,ord was supported by a sure and steadfast 
hope in the hour of his fierce conflict with princi- 
palities and powers of earth and hell. As He went 
down under the waves and billows ; as He entered 
the damp sepulchre of death where the iron 
Monarch awaited his prey, sitting upon his throne 
of skulls, the trophies of his conquests over the 
children of men, Jesus, the intrepid Champion, 
turned His face heavenward and shouted with 
triumphant exultation these words of this Psalm : 
" My flesh also will dwell in hope ; that Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in the mansion of the dead, nor 
suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou 
HAST MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE ; 
Thou with Thy presence wilt fill me with joy. At 
Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." 

As He tasted death for every man, so, for the joy 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 245 

that was set before Him, He endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and as the reward of his toil 
and His triumph, He now sitteth at the right hand 
of God. 

Now, spiritual life is not only patterned after 
Christ's life, but it is also the reproduction of that 
life. Having died with Him, we are risen in Him. 
And so for us the sorrows are lessened, the bitterness 
is sweetened, the sufferings are modified, and death 
is conquered. For us the path of life glows with 
light. Laterally, it is " The path of lives," Christ's 
life and ours. And with this spiritual life, which is 
resurrection life, is bound up spirit, soul, and body, 
each of which in its own time will be made to 
know the power of His resurrection, when our glorifi- 
cation will be completed at the time of our Lord's 
return. But should He tarry and we sink in death, 
let this also be our blest assurance, " Thou wilt 
show me the path of life." With Puritan Adams 
let us assert this our hope, " Him that rose from the 
clods, we expect in the clouds ; to raise our bodies, 
to perform His promises, to finish our faith, to per- 
fect our glory, and to draw us unto Himself." 

Spiritual life, then, in its nature and character, is 
resurrection life. 

II. The extent and perpetuity of spiritual life. 
" The King asked life of Thee and Thou gavest it 
Him, even length of days forever and ever." Ps. 
xxi. 4. 



246 Spiritual Life. 

This verse intimates the extent of spiritual life ; 
" length of days forever and ever." The theme of 
this Psalm is Messiah's exaltation and glory. He 
is presented as King upon whom honor and majesty 
have been laid. In v. 2 we read, " Thou hast given 
him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the 
request of His lips," v/hile in v. 4 the subject- 
matter of the prayer is made known : " He asked 
life of Thee." From v. 8 to 12 we read that the 
King's enemies are swallowed up, devoured, de- 
stroyed. He who is delivered from deadly enemies 
has life given to Him. No doubt this was the boon 
given to Jesus when God the Father raised Him 
from the dead. The Bible speaks of Christ's resur- 
rection day as His birthday. He is the first-begotten 
from the dead, and now He lives forever. Hear 
Him say to John in Patmos, " I am He that liveth 
and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore." 
Rev. i. 17. " For in that He died He died unto 
sin once, but in that He liveth He liveth unto God." 
The days of Jesus are now the days of Bternity. 
He is the Father of the everlasting ages. This 
Psalm is the triumphant song of the King, " who 
is eternal, immortal, invisible." And His life is the 
extent of our life. It is worthy of notice that the 
assurance of life and favor found in this Psalm 
follows the twentieth Psalm, which alludes to the 
day of Messiah's trouble, and precedes the twenty- 
second, which foretells the death awaiting Him. 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 247 

Is not this also characteristic of our spiritual life ? 
Our joys succeed our sorrows. Nor need we ever 
forget that length of days is our appointment. Mean- 
while, " all things work together for good to them 
that love God, to them who are the called according 
to His purpose." Rom. viii. 28. 

There is another thought suggested by this pas- 
sage— " He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it 
Him, even length of days forever and ever," viz., 
God's bountifulness in answering the prayer of His 
people. In all ages of the Church's history, He 
has done "exceeding abundantly, above all that we 
ask or think, according to His riches in glory by 
Christ Jesus." 

Hezekiah asked for recovery, and God added to 
his life fifteen years. But the extent of our Spiritual 
life cannot be measured by cycles. Jesus said, " I 
give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of 
My hand." John x. 28. 

III. The support and defence of spiritual life. 
"The IyORD is my light and my salvation ; whom 
shall I fear ? the L,ord is the strength of my life ; 
of whom shall I be afraid ? Ps. xxvii. 1. 

This magnificent Psalm has been termed "a song 
of cheerful hope, well fitted for those in trial who 
have learned to lean upon the Almighty Arm." 
Its preface is a boast of a threefold possession : 
light, salvation, strength. But they are all in the 



248 Spiritual Life. 

Lord, who is no empty casket, for when we receive 
Him, we find in Him all precious things. It is no 
small boast to say the Lord gives me light, the 
Lord gives me salvation, the Lord gives me strength, 
but it is a higher grade of experience when the 
soul can exult in the Lord as being Himself every- 
thing to us. The Lord is my light. Our highest 
exultations are not from the blessings themselves, 
nor yet because of their adaptation to us ; but in 
this, that there is a Blesser behind the blessing. 
It is this which gives tone to our doxology, " Praise 
God, from whom all blessings flow." The secret 
of strength is made known in this second verse of 
the Psalm. Spiritual life has its infancy, its weak- 
nesses, its relapses ; it must have support. Spiritual 
life has also its instincts ; it seeks after God. You 
have found some stray plant in your dark cellar 
springing from a seed which had somehow dropped 
through a crevice into the soil. There is a ray of 
light adjacent to the plant, and toward it the 
delicate shoot hastens. This is its instinct. It is 
no strained metaphor nor mere figure of speech for 
the believer to say, The Lord is my light. This 
he knows by a happy experience, and the instincts 
of his life also reach after more of God ; he seeks a 
more complete illumination. " Adorable Sun," 
cried St. Bernard, " I cannot walk without Thee ; 
enlighten my steps and furnish this barren and 
ignorant mind with thoughts worthy of Thee. 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 249 

Adorable fullness of light and heat, be Thou the 
true noonday of my soul, exterminate its darkness, 
disperse its clouds, burn, dry up, and consume all 
its filth and impurities. Divine Sun, rise upon my 
soul and never set." Notice the bold challenge of 
the Psalmist, " The Lord is my light and my salva- 
tion ; whom shall 1 fear ? the Lord is the 
strength of my life ; of whom shall i be afraid?" 
Jehovah is the believer's stronghold, his tower of 
defence, his everlasting shield. 

In the fourth verse of this Psalm spiritual life ex- 
presses itself in one great all-inclusive wish, " One 
thing have I asked of the Lord, and this I will 
earnestly seek, that I may dwell in the house of the 
Lord all the days of my life — that I may contem- 
plate the delight of the Lord, and visit His temple. " 
Within this sacred shrine of the holy temple, where 
God resides, we have access by faith. There we are 
supported, sustained, defended. There we behold 
His glory in fullness of light. There we silently 
adore and worship. 

IV. The gladness of spiritual life. The next 
passage to which I call attention where life is found 
is in Psalm xxx. 5. " For His anger endure th for 
a moment ; in His favor is life ; weeping may 
endure for anight, but joy cometh in the morning." 
There is a contrast between God's anger and God's 
favor. His anger is of brief duration, yet how soon 
we wither beneath its consuming power. His favor 
is prolonged and promotes our joy. 



250 Spiritual Life. 

We are here reminded of the fact that Christian 
experience is ever changing, that it is not always 
eqnal. Some men touch the extremes of Spiritual 
life. To-day they are bathed in the sunshine of the 
Delectable mountains ; to-morrow they are in earn- 
est battle with cruel Apollyon, or feeling the heavy 
atmosphere of the enchanted ground. Sometimes 
through our foolishness, we call down our Father's 
displeasure, while again after full confession and 
reparation of wrong-doing we are indulged with His 
favor. And have we not found His favor life? 
Oh ! it is worth striving after to live continually in 
the favor of God. Jacob could bear the hardship 
of His service for twice seven years, in order to 
secure the abiding companionship of his Rachel. 
Her favor was to him the wine of life. Our brief 
mourning gives zest to prolonged mirth, if it be the 
mirth which is the reward of the divine favor. The 
honey tastes sweeter after the bitter wormwood. 
Tears are suitable for the hours of night, but when 
morning arrives sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 
Mourning ends with morning. Dark clouds are 
forgotten in the clear sunshine ; the storm which 
threatened our barque is but a memory, as we glide 
into the peaceful harbor. Our best days are yet 
before us, when no cloud shall hide from our vision 
the smiling face of God. 

The rapid interchanges of peace and trouble, of 
grief and gladness, are contrasted in v. 7. " Iyord 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 251 

by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to 
stand strong : Thou didst hide Thy face and I was 
troubled." Oh ! how we should pray' that the face 
and favor of the L,ord be upon us. This was Aaron's 
priestly prayer for Israel, " The I^ord bless thee and 
keep thee ; the L,ord cause His face to shine upon 
thee and be gracious unto thee ; the L,ord lift upon 
thee the light of His countenance and give thee 
peace." Numb. vi. 20-22. 

Peace, gladness, and holy joy are characteristics 
of spiritual life in its healthful and normal condition. 

V. The source of spiritual life. Psalm xxvi. 9 : 
" For with Thee is the fountain of life." 

In this Psalm there is a contrast between the 
righteous and the wicked. In Psalm fourteen we 
read that the fool hopes in his heart there is no 
God ; while in verse 1 of this Psalm it is written, 
' ' The transgression of the wicked saith within my 
heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes." 
This repudiation of the living God is a distress to the 
godly man, who in v. 5, 6, 7, exalts the divine 
attributes. " Thy mercy, O Iyord, is in the heavens, 
and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 
Thy righteousness is like great mountains, Thy 
judgments are a great deep. O Lord, Thou pre- 
servest man and beast. How excellent is Thy 
loving kindness, O God ! therefore the children of 
men put their trust under the shadow of Thy 
wings." Having thus exalted Jehovah, who has 



252 Spiritual Life, 

been slighted by the wicked, the psalmist recog- 
nizes his own indebtedness, for in God he finds an 
abundant supply of satisfaction, rivers of pleasures 
and a fountain of life. 

Here then is an acknowledgment, nay, more, a 
joyful boast, that God IS THE SOURCE OE KlX, LIFE. 
For it is u in Him we live and move and have our 
being." An English writer declares that these 
words, " For with Thee is the fountain of life," 
are some of the most wonderful words in the Old 
Testament. They are in fact the kernel and the 
anticipation of much of the profoundest teaching 
of St. John. 

" The well is deep," exclaimed the woman of 
Samaria, while ignorant of the Fountain by her 
side. Because of this fountain of life there may be 
a well-spring in every Christian soul. " Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again," may be 
written over the door of every sinful pleasure, but 
" whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him," said our Lord, "shall never thirst, but the 
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well 
of water springing up unto everlasting life." We 
connect this grand statement, "With Thee is the 
fountain of life," with Psalm xlii. 2, " My soul 
thirsteth for God, for the living God" and with v. 8, 
" Yet the Lord will command His loving kindness 
in the day time, and in the night His song shall be 
with me, and my prayer unto the God of my UfeP 



Spiritual Life in the Psalms. 253 

Jehovah is the living God, and the God of my life. 
He it is who giveth songs in the night. So that 
whether we sing His praise, or offer our petitions, 
we should ever keep in remembrance that He is the 
living God. Praise sounds sweetly in His ear, and 
He who is the source of all Life is able to do ex- 
ceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. We 
do not pray to a dead God, nor to a sleeping God, 
nor to an indifferent God, but to the living God 
who is the God of our Life. 

Thomas Norton tersely remarks, "That there 
are three respects especially in which God is said to 
be the living God. First, originally, because He 
only hath life in Himself, and of Himself, and all 
creatures have it from Him. Secondly, opera- 
tively, because He is the only giver of life unto man. 
Thirdly, He is said to be the living God by way of 
distinction, and in opposition to all false gods." 

I have presented this subject to you only suggest- 
ively. There is very much more to be said con- 
cerning other features of Spiritual Life as developed 
in the book of Psalms. I am sure that in a patient 
and prayerful study of the subject our personal life 
will be greatly helped, and we shall be encouraged 
to strive after the sublime possibilities in Christian 
experience to which others have attained. 




XIV. 

GOLDEN KEY TO THE PSALMS. 

WO things are of absolute importance in 

order to acquire a proper understanding 

of the book of Psalms. First to possess 

the right Key with which to unlock its 

treasures, and next the ability to make use of that 

Key. The Holy Spirit alone can give us this ability. 

The Key is Jesus Messiah. While the doctrinal 

Epistles may be partly understood by the use of 

certain Key-words, the Psalms can only be unlocked 

by a Key-Person. Jesus not only possesses the Key 

of David, with which He will hereafter open the 

door for Israel to the Kingdom of David, and so 

fulfill those grand prophecies which declare that 

He shall sit upon the throne of his father David, 

but He is also Himself the Key of David in the 

sense that He is both the object and the subject of 

David's Psalms. " In the volume of the book it is 

written of ME." Ps. xl. 7 ; Hebrew x. 7. All 

through His blessed ministiy He called attention to 

the predictions of Scripture concerning Himself, 

very frequently quoting from the book of Psalms. 

I/uke xxiv. 44. 

Now, while I would not by a hair's breadth lessen 

the importance rightly attached to our L,ord's dying 

(254) 



Golden Key to the Psalms. 255 

words, "It is finished, " I beg to call attention 
to their first application and fulfillment. The Holy 
Spirit, through the human writer, is pleased to 
record these words : "Jesus knowing that all 
things are now finished, that the Scripture might 
be accomplished, saith, I thirst. . . . When 
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar he said, 
" It is finished." John xix. 28-30, R. V. Did not 
our Iyord at His near approach to death have in 
mind every Scripture prophecy relating to His first 
advent, and as yet one remained unfulfilled ? Had 
He not this prediction in mind, " They gave Me also 
gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me 
vinegar to drink." Ps. lxix. 21. Was it not to 
this final prophecy He referred when He said " It 
is finished ? " All was now accomplished that had 
been declared concerning His earthly life and 
ministry. And is not the very language, "It is 
finished," a quotation from Ps. xxii. 31, " He hath 
done it," i. e. completed it. He had completed a life 
which had fulfilled every Scripture prediction re- 
garding it. 

If then this conclusion is the result of candid 
interpretation, why not view the Psalms in their 
entirety as a complete prophetic history of Jesus in 
His two advents and in . all that pertains to them ? 
I do not say, of Jesus alone, but of Jesus in His 
varied official character ; in His relation to the Jew, 
the Gentile, and the church of God. The Psalms 



256 Spiritital Life. 

are indeed more penetrating in their history of Jesus, 
than the Gospels. These give us His historical life 
in its outward form ; what He did : while the 
Psalms predict chiefly His inner life ; what He is. 
Thus are they the real exponent of the highest form 
of Spiritual L,ife. 

Does not this view of the Psalms also explain 
their unlimited fullness ? Holy Penmen spake and 
wrote of things beyond their knowledge ; they 
portrayed emotions and described sensations not 
known to themselves through personal experience : 
for, whether aware of it, or not, they were trans- 
cribing the tender experiences of the Man of Sor- 
rows, and exultant hopes of Israel's future King. 

We sometimes speak of the Messianic Psalms as 
if they were limited in number. But if we view 
the book, not in its fragmentary parts, but as a 
whole, may we not claim that the Psalms are alto- 
gether Messianic ? As the Sinaitic law relates in 
its entirety to God and man, so we submit that the 
whole collection of Psalms in their leading features 
and general teaching pertain to Christ as both God 
and Man. The Psalms of experience are Messianic ; 
so also are the doctrinal. Every doctrine is neces- 
sarily related to Christ, otherwise they become 
abstractions of little worth. 

I. Take for instance the doctrine of Sin. That 
evil thing receives full recognition in the Psalms, 
not only as a transgression of law, but also a secret 



Golden Key to the Psalms. 257 

leaven-working power in the heart of man. In the 
fifty-first Psalm the terrible consequences of sin are 
exposed in David's confession of his guilt as the 
outcome of a corrupt nature. But hear his prayer : 
" Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash 
me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Is there no 
reference to Christ in this prayer for purification? 
In the thirty-second Psalm hear we the joyful note : 
" Blessed is the man whose transgression is for- 
given, whose sin is covered." Is there no allusion 
to the atonement in this gospel declaration ? Turn 
we now to Psalm one-hundred-and-third, that 
glorious acknowledgment of mercies received for 
which praise is rendered. Notice verse 2, " Who 
forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth. all thy 
diseases," and verse 12, " As far as the east is from 
the west, so far hath He removed our transgression 
from us." Here assuredly it is Christ forgiving, 
Christ healing, Christ putting away sin by the 
sacrifice of Himself ; Christ through His atonement 
of blood covering man's guilt, as prefigured in the 
typical Mercy-seat. Inasmuch, then, as these 
Psalms refer to Jesus, the sinner's great Redeemer, 
they are indeed Messianic. And so we can trace 
each doctrine throughout the Book in its vital con- 
nection with Christ Jesus. Election, Sovereignty, 
Grace, Assurance, Holiness, Priesthood, Resurrec- 
tion, find their life, source and power in the glorious 

person of the Messiah. The experience Psalms 
17 



258 Spiritual Life. 

have a fuller and richer meaning because it is 
Messiah's experience; the doctrinal Psalms are 
spiritually vital because linked with His personality, 
while the unfulfilled prophetic Psalms are still 
pointing onward to His enthronement and uni- 
versal supremacy. 

II. Thus having established by proof that Mes- 
siah is the Key of the Book in its broad and general 
teaching, I now pass on to notice that there are 
some of these Psalms which are specially and mani- 
festly Messianic. 

The Old Testament name, Messiah, belongs chiefly 
to Israel. I have used it heretofore in an accom- 
modating sense. It is not the New Testament name 
by which Jesus is best known to the church. 
Since His resurrection from the dead His appella- 
tion is IyORD. Throughout the book of Acts and 
the Epistles this name of headship and rule is 
most frequently employed. 

Messiah is indeed the Anointed One, anointed as 
the Prophet of whom Moses said, " The L,ord thy 
God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet from the 
midst of thy brethren, like unto Me, unto Him ye 
shall hearken,'' Deut. xviii. 15 ; anointed as a Priest 
after the order of Melchizedek, Heb. v. 6 ; anointed 
as King, of whom David was type, and of whose 
kingdom David was Founder, L,uke i. 32, 33. 
Now in the Psalms there is constant reference to 
Israel's re-vivification through the spirit of life 



Golden Key to the Psalms, 259 

bestowed on tliem by Messiah. He is the foretold 
Shiloh, and unto Him shall the gathering of the 
people be. Gen. xlix. 18. Therefore throughout 
the Book, Zion and Jerusalem have special promi- 
nence. Jehovah-Jesus will hereafter impart life to 
His people ; Israel is very dear to His heart. The 
plaintive wail of the captives by the rivers of Baby- 
lon is but the echo of Messiah's voice, "If I forget 
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 
cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
mouth if I remember thee not ; if I prefer not 
Jerusalem above my chief joy." Ps. cxxxvii. 6. 
There is a deeper meaning in the tears of Jesus as 
He wept over Jerusalem than we usually think. 
Have we not more than an intimation of His special 
interest in the royal city in the command " Pray for 
the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love 
hee." Ps. cxxii. 6. Mount Ziou was once the 
dwelling place of Jehovah. Within the curtained 
temple He shone in awful splendor, until, when 
grieved by Israel's multiplied apostasies, He with- 
drew from the sanctuary. Hear the glowing 
description of the once favored city : u Beautiful for 
elevation, the joy of the whole earth was Mount 
Zion, the city of the great King. God had made 
Himself known in her palaces for a refuge." Ps. 
xlviii. 1-3. Again, " Out of Zion the perfection of 
beauty God hath shined forth." Ps. 1. 2. Once 
more it is recorded, " The Lord loved the gates of 



260 Spiritual Life. 

Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 
Glorious things are spoken of Thee, O city of God," 
Ps. lxxxvii. 1-3. 

III. We now raise this question : Is Jerusalem to 
have no future corresponding to her past greatness ? 
Reaching back to the days of Abraham she has a 
history of 1200 years before the birth of Rome, and 
to her properly belongs the title "The Eternal 
City." We submit that this name is Scripturally 
appropriate in view of her future glorious destiny. 
For she shall become an u Eternal Excellency," 
Messiah's city, the city of the Great King. Founded 
by Melchizedek, King of Righteousness, and King 
of Peace, she shall become super-excellent, when 
hereafter governed by Melchizedek's great Anti- 
type, David's Son and David's L,ord. " For Zion's 
sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's 
sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof 
go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as 
a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see 
thy righteousness, and all the kings thy glory : and 
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the 
mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also 
be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and 
a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou 
shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall 
thy land any more be termed Desolate ; but thou 
shall be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah : 
for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall 



Golden Key to the Psalms, 261 

be married. And they shall call them the holy 
people. The redeemed of the L,ord ; and thou 
shalt be called, Sought Out, A city not forsaken." 
Isa. lxii. 1-4, 12. 

Thus we see the Isaiah predictions of Jerusalem 
are in accord with the Psalm prophecies. Attach- 
ing no mystic meaning to the references made to 
the future of Zion and Jerusalem what can be our 
conclusion when we read : 

"L,et Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of 
Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk 
about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers 
thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her 
palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation follow- 
ing." Ps. xlviii. 11— 13. 

u Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion : build 
thou the walls of Jerusalem." Ps. li. 18. 

" Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion : 
for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. 
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and 
favor the dust thereof. So the heavens shall fear 
the name of the L,ord, .and all the kings of the 
earth thy glory. When the I^ord shall build up 
Zion, he shall appear in his glory." Ps. cii. 13-16. 

" For God will save Zion, and will build the 
cities of Judah ; that they may dwell there, and 
have it in possession. The seed also of his servants 
shall inherit it ; and they that love His name shall 
dwell therein." Ps. lxix. 35-36. 



262 Spiritual Life. 

My object in directing special attention to these 
Jewish prophecies is to show how closely Messiah 
is connected with the fnture of the Jewish people, 
and their beloved city, and that per consequence, it 
is His life which is the source, and sustenance of all 
spiritual life,, individual or national. 

Thus, then, we conclude that the doctrines of the 
Psalms centre in Him who is both Sacrifice and 
Priest ; the experiences of the Psalms radiate from 
the inner life of Jesus, the perfect Man ; while the 
yet unfulfilled prophetic Psalms concern the Messiah, 
Israel's future King, and Earth's rightful Owner. 
This is THE golden Key fitting into the complicated 
wards of the Lock, by which we may open the 
door, through the ability which the Holy Spirit 
imparts, into this well-filled storehouse of heavenly 
treasure, and enrich ourselves unto all bountifulness. 
Thus, also, is Jesus Messiah the Fountain of Life 
which through restored Israel shall bud, and blos- 
som, and fill the world with fruit. Through the 
Seed of Abraham shall all the nations of the earth 
be blest. 






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